Get out and vote today! Not much happening in PA, typical school board, borough council stuff but some places are having very big elections. Mississippi and Kentucky are voting in new Governors, today could cement GOP rule in the south. Philadelphia’s electing a mayor, we’ll see today what matters more: good transparent governance or race fealty. Hell, if the KKK ran a candidate and expected all the white folks to vote for him out of racial solidarity the whole country would go nuts – how’s come it’s OK for a black mayor to do exactly that?
I do have one complaint about the whole voting thing – I can’t say I’ve seen any good, concise rundown of the positions of the variety of candidates running for all my little local offices. Apart from soundbites and billboards indicating that they feel your pain and really care – shades of Clintonism – I haven’t seen anything concrete. So, what’s a brother to do? Voting straight ticket is stupid and small-minded. Not all Republicans are good and not all Democrats are bad. Hell, I damn near voted for a Green Party kid today – he’s young, he self addressed envelopes to the voters and he brought free drinks to the polling place. I did, however, come to my senses at the last minute.
All that aside, one hopes that when voting for a Republican one knows nothing about that one is choosing someone in the solid Ronald Reagan/Theodore Roosevelt mode rather than the squishy Arlen Specter/Jim Jeffords mode. Likewise, I suspect there are Democrats out there cut from the Andrew Jackson/Zell Miller mold rather than the Al Gore/Dianne Feinstein mold. How does one know?
In a pinch I tend to pick women and irish folks. That is, only if the Republican candidates are known and don’t appeal to me. I’ll never vote straight ticket but I do wish someone would provide better information to the voters.
2 Responses to Your Civic Duty