I want Election Day to be a mandatory day off work. I want us to go back to the bad old days where votes were bought with whiskey and voters were intimidated by roving gangs of partisan roughnecks. I want it to be an occasion. I want people to know that it’s important, that it’s a duty and a privilege to be able to vote. To know that your vote counts and that if you don’t make a decision it’s likely that prick across the street who always lets his dog shit on your front lawn is going to be making the decisions for you.
Always vote – if for no other reason that to know you’re cancelling out some other prick’s vote.
What I want most of all is to be able to get some local political information available on the web. I spent a good bit of time yesterday trying to figure out what the ballot was going to look like: who was running, what offices were contested, where the money comes from, what the candidate’s philosophies were? Do you think I could find one goddamn thing? Of course not. I was able to very easily compile a list of the state-level offices, the various judges up for retention and new ones trying to get in. I made a cheat sheet so I didn’t miss any. But Prothonotary? County Commissioner? School Board? Not a fecking peep. Not a word or a comment. Not a thing. I had to vote by party: not even knowing if they stand for the same principles I do or just choose a party because it looks good on the ballot and they can always rely on suckers like me. In the end, I had to leave many of the choices blank. Better that I’m not voting to screw myself than to offer someone an apparent “mandate of the people” when I don’t even know who they are. All politics is local. Which may explain why things are so royally screwed up.
I got the judges right. Pennsylvanians have a rare opportunity today. A chance to make their voices loudly heard. Vote NO on all retentions. I don’t care if the person in question is the finest judge in the country. I don’t care if they’ll always rule according to my personal whims. I don’t care if they end up back at the bar defending the indefensible. They either voted directly to override the Constitution in the matter of the pay raises or they acquiesced to the usurpation. Either way, throw the bums out!
And Philadelphia gets a chance to end the long reign of the botched and bungled, the thugs and thieves. The word in town is Michael Nutter will fix everything. Phillies got swept in the NLDS? Michael Nutter will fix it. Eagles are tanking? Michael Nutter will fix it. Flyers are doing alright? It’s because Michael Nutter is going to win the election!
It will be an interesting election night. In the morning, I’ll still be locally screwed by nepotists and embezzlers and the state will still be shafted by old boys and egoists. But I’ll have done my duty. And only had to dodge the few slavering electioneers at the polling station.
Go and vote. If only to feel like you’re still one of the soverign people.
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