Entries tagged with elections

Current Mood: civic-minded
Current Location: home
Current Music: Miles Davis - Pharaoh's Dance

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Votated

Jeff and I just got back from voting. I figured it would be less of a hassle to go now before the rest of the huddled masses come home from work, as the evenings tend to be much more crowded. About 15 minutes and we were both done. Only a handful of people there this time.

I miss the old mechanical voting machines. There was always something satisfying about that healthy ker-chunk when you pulled the big red lever. Touch screens just have no soul.

Current Mood: irate
Current Location: Studio
Current Music: Bon Jovi/Olivia d'Abo - Livin' on a Prayer

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Kicking the crust off

I have a rather large friends list as part of my LJ Experience™. The cool part is not the number of people, but the variety. So many different talents, abilities, viewpoint, and so many expressive people. While I might not comment everywhere, I do try my best to read every post in its entirety. This includes those entries I might not agree or align with. After all, I read folks' stuff as an entire body of work, as an insight into who they are, what they like/dislike, etc. I'm sure there's quite a large pile of those who subscribe to my scribes here who don't share all of my views, hobbies, pastimes, orientations and whatnot. I run down my f-list entries and occasionally find something that might rub me the wrong way, if it looks like there might be an opportunity for a healthy debate, I might post something to that effect. Quite often, I see something and just think, "that's nice" and skip to the next entry. But every now and then, I will read a post that should not go unanswered. In rare cases, this might be a friends-only locked post with comments disabled. When it's an entry that reeks so much of fail, and it lays there like a Malamute turd on a child's birthday cake, I feel the need to drag it out into the light before the mushrooms start sprouting. Like this bon mot:

It's sad to think that as a Conservative I can only vote Once. ~Gosh~ if I was a Democrat I could vote multiple times whether I was alive/dead/registered or not!

~Beware of Voter FRAUD, People~

O rly, now? You actually believe this? You think this happens all over the place? And do you think it's only a problem with Democrats? Or are you making a joke or some sort of twisted commentary? I'm sure by the above statement you imply that Republicans are above board at all times, keepers of all that is moral, right and good.

So there you have it, folks. The political discourse of this once great nation has been reduced to noise like that up there in red text. Politicians, in their race to the bottom have reduced people to mindless thinking and parroting dimbulb personalities. I might not like the end results of some of the candidates I voted for, but I'm still willing to tough it out, fight the good fight, and hold all elected leaders' feet to the fire.

Sadly, I think after tomorrow's elections, the race to the bottom will pick up mach speed.

(Bonus points to those who know the above quoted poster's identity. I'm not revealing it, but you can. It's a free country, after all.)

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: Audioslave - Shape Of Things To Come

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Voted

I did the voting thing on the way home from work today. Went off without a hitch, though for me, playing tappity-tap on a Diebold touch screen does not give me much confidence that my vote actually counted. There was a fair amount of people at the polls when I went in, I guess that is a good thing.

I've been "voting" since I can remember. It was Mom who, without fail, took me with her to the polls as a wee child and instilled in me the importance of being a part of the governmental process. Being that she came from the Soviet Union, she saw the U.S. election process her civic duty. To her, being able to shape the government in the country where she lived was an important gift. While not perfect all the time, and with results not always in her favor, she still had faith in the process and voted every major election. When I was a kid, she took me into the booth to watch her push the levers, most often letting me push the ones she selected. It was an exciting thing for me at that early age, because I knew from her telling me that it was one of the most important tasks that she'd perform. When I was finally old enough to vote, we would discuss the issues and candidates in the weeks before the election, then go together and perform our patriotic duties. Needless to say, in '00 we truly felt disenfranchised for the first time, with subsequent years being no better. Still we did what we knew was right. And being that we voted, we had every right to complain when things ran counter to our positions.

Tonight, in a light rain, I went to the polls and cast my ballot. I did so alone for the first time in my life. Upon completing my task, I was given a "I Voted" sticker from the elections official. I proudly stuck it on my shirt pocket, made my way past the folks waiting in line, and took notice of a woman at one of the machines with her kid beside her, getting involved early. I must have been beaming.

I walked back to the car in the increasing rain. Upon closing the car door, I broke down, bawling my eyes out.