Voting

Just took my daughter with me and did my civic duty in voting. The turn-out was huge. I have never had to stand in line to vote before, even when elections have had large turnouts. So we'll see where this ends up. I do suspect that the Dems will take a major hit, but I think for the most part it has little to do with their policies and more to do with the fact that they are in power.

There are some who are angry at the Democrats, but it is my sense that more people are just angry at the process and the fact that nothing seems to be getting done. Of course part of the problem is that anger drives politicians to become even more entrenched in their camps, because they think they have the people on their sides, instead of being driven to actually compromise and get things done. I'm sure the republicans will over play their hand on this and they'll end up just like they were in 1996, following the "revolution" in 1994. History does tend to repeat itself.

The one qualm I always have when voting is whether I should vote for who I really want to vote for, or should I vote for the candidate who will best represent my views and has a chance of winning? That of course is a driving issue all the time. All we need to do is remember Gore's election/non-election. I don't want one of the candidates to win and know that in voting for this other person that I do help him because that is a vote away from his opponent. But I felt to vote the way I needed to vote regardless of outcome, and I'm okay with that. And here's the simple truth, if everyone voted for people, regardless of whether they stood a chance, our political scene would be radically different.

My brother has been a supporter of Dennis Kucinich and has had lots of people say, "I like him and his policies, but he doesn't stand a chance and so I can't vote for him." If everyone who said that actually did vote for him he would actually stand a chance. I don't want to have to plug my nose and vote for someone anyways (although sometimes I still have to), I want to be able to vote for the person I think is best for the job regardless of whether they stand a chance to win or not.

If you don't participate in the process then you have no right to complain about the outcome, so please go vote today.