What A Shitty Voter I Have Been

[ThomWV]

I first voted in the Presidential Election of 1968. You had to be 21 to vote back then and though I am 60+ now I have never missed voting in any election, local to national, ever since. That's the way my mother and step-father raised me.

With very few exceptions my votes have been cast for Democrats and always for positions supported by the Democratic Party. I have voted for school funding bonds and I have voted against legalized gambling. Over almost 40 years I have voted for every post from County Surveyor to President of the United States of America. And that's the problem.

Half of the time I didn't know a dam thing about the people I was voting for. 15 times I have voted for a person to fill the position of County Surveyor for Preston County, West Virginia and I don't even know what the job entails let alone have any idea who might best be qualified to perform its tasks. I have voted for career politicians who gave me the uneasy feeling they might be bilking the public, I have checked blocks to approve new or continued taxes for projects I had never heard of.

For some reason I've always felt compelled to cast my mark for every position and issue on the ballot. The notion that it was my patriotic duty to vote was drummed into my head so completely that I haven't been able to leave a block unchecked. By god it will never be that way again. My days as a robotic (shitty) voter are over.

My slavish devotion to the Democratic Party has come to and end. Keith's Special Comment struck a cord last night. I'll be damned if I'll ever cast another vote for a person to fill any office unless they make it clear to me that they understand what I demand of them and that they will act on it. When I vote to end a war I mean for the war to end; when I vote for the return of Habeas Corpus I mean for it to be restored, when I vote for impeachment I intend for proceedings to go forward. Predatory lending' looting of the treasury, mercenary army's training in the swamps of the Carolinas, lack of energy policy and runaway "deregulation" plague the nation and I voted for those things to be addressed. When I voted for change I expected change and I sure as hell am not seeing it.

2008 will be different - very different indeed.

I don't think that I am alone in feeling betrayed or abandoned by the Democratic Party. It will play out in the next election. I do not know who will win the Presidential Election other than it will not be a Republican. That is obvious. I do think that whoever does take it will win by a landslide of votes cast, but at the same time I think that voter turnout will be abysmal.

[Tesla]

1. You can be a responsible voter right NOW!!!

Call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to the offices of your members of Congress. Tell them to VOTE NO on the war funding bill.

[Tyler Durden]

9. Won't help ME. Mine is Dave Camp....

...Rich, Youngish, Total Bushbot.

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. "I do not know who will win the Presidential Election other than it will not be a Republican."

I think that statement is wrong. People forget that we will not be running against George Bush. Today's vote changes everything, including our chances to take the White House in 2008.

[dysfunctional press]

8. exactly. i think the repugs may be hard to beat in 2008.

especially since we don't have a strong enough candidate(gore) in the race yet.

[AllegroRondo]

3. My dad's advice on voting

"If you dont recognize the names on the ballot, vote against the incumbant. If he hasnt done anything during his time on the job to make you recognize him, he's probably not worth keeping."

"If you dont like any of the candidates, write in your own name. At least you know you can do a better job than they can."

[mmonk]

4. Well, you knew you didn't agree with the republicans.

So you were acting responsibly in the way you knew. I've been pulling the party lever or marking the straight ticket too.

[DancingBear]

5. Thank you ThomWV

The most difficult thing to do is to rid yourself of the two-party brainwashing memo and vote your conscience.

At times it will be Democratic, and times it will be Independent, at times it will be third party, but at ALL times you will OWN your vote once again.

It is the only way to change course - the only way.

I was standing right beside you three years ago in the "slavish devotion" camp, so I know where you are right now.

Ignore the loyalty oaths, and the naive "President (fill in Republican name) thanks you" responses. Some people just can't bear to look behind the curtain and see the false god.

Change starts slow, and there will be setbacks, but we need to stop the stranglehold.

Now.

Good luck.

[Virginia Dare]

6. I'm frustrated, definitely.

but I will put the blame where the majority of it lies, at the feet of the Republicans and in particular the neocon fascists who got us into this. I think for that very reason, people will come to the polls to vote against Bush again. It's pretty clear which party supports the war and which doesn't. It's pretty clear which party is obstructing the end of the war.

I'm not ready to abandon the Democratic party, and I don't think they're betraying us, but I do think they need to shit or get off the pot because people are dying.

[MuseRider]

7. I am happy to see

more of these posts.

I was always like that too until a little over a year ago (? don't remember for certain) when I changed my registration from D to Unaffiliated.

As long as any party can say that we will always vote for them because the other side is so much worse we will never see any change. While it may be true that the other side is worse we have to shake them all up once in a while or we get what we are seeing today. 2 parties listening to themselves and thinking of themselves and not responsive to us.

It is difficult to even want to stay engaged when it is like this but like you, I am older and have been through enough to know that we must. We do not have to be someone who will "vote for a Bologna sandwich before I will ever vote for a different party". Nothing will ever change that way.

We have to think. Being a party loyalist is just the simple way to do things. No thinking involved.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

10. You Say The Republican Won't Win. That Means The Democrat Wins.

It's one or the other; period.

Regardless of how disappointed in the Dems you are, you are still faced with a black and white choice next election: Do you want the republican to win or the Democrat? If one wants the republican to win then one would either vote for the republican, not vote at all, or vote for some empty green. If one wants the Democrat to win, then they'd of course vote for the Democrat. There's no inbetween. It is a straightforward simple question without any nuance whatsoever in which the voter must ask: "Who do I want to be the victor tomorrow, the republican or the Democrat?". One, or the other. After being answered, the voter should vote accordingly regardless of distaste.

[DancingBear]

11. "It's one or the other; period."

Do you have a drivers license?

If so, how can you see with those blinders on?

Congratulations, you got the Democratic Party you asked for.

Cowards, empty suits, corporate whores of the first degree.

But there you are, lining up come November rewarding them for everything you rail against.

Man, they ought to send you Christmas presents every day of your life.

You are a walking status quo don't matter what we do I'll vote for you wet dream.

If you want to know why kids are still dying in Iraq, look in the mirror.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

13. I'm Not The One With The Blinders Bub. Your Emotions Don't Change Reality. It Is One Or The Other.

The day after election day, either a republican or a Democrat will be named the victor. That is not the product of being blind to anything, but simply an outcome of actual reality. If anything is blinding it is your emotions being invested within your thinking process of this issue. But that does not alter the fact that it is one or the other. Can you dispute that the winner will either be the Democrat or the republican? Can you? Cause if you can't then I'm right whether you like it or not.

Simple choices: Do I want the republican to win or the Democrat? That's all it comes down to bub. That's all it comes down to. Pick your side and vote appropriately. Cause not voting means you are helping the republican win. Voting indy or green means you are helping the republican win. Voting for the republican means you are helping the republican win. Only voting for the Democrat means you're helping the Democrat win. But in the end, either the republican or Democrat will be the victor with no in between or otherwise. So if you want the republican, do one of the former three things. If you want the Democrat, do the latter. It IS that black and white. It IS that simple. There IS no nuance. It IS this straightforward of a choice to make.

So answer that question: Do you want the republican to win on election day or the democrat? It is one or the other whether you like it or not.

[Warpy]

12. It's all right, you're still a mensch, and you are doing

only what the rest of us have been doing, voting for the party that we've felt best represented our interests instead of a man or woman we wouldn't know if we fell over.

The Democrats were between a rock and a hard place. They knew Stupid would veto any bill that specified a withdrawal schedule and didn't want to be accused of leaving the troops unfunded. Add to that the propaganda yesterday about the delayed food supplies (Oh my gawd, they're STARVING our fine men and women in uniform!) and you can well imagine the negative press.

Personally, I agree with you that the bill should have been sent back with no additional spending but with the previous deadlines. I could strangle Harry Reid with a smile on my face for caving on the most important part of that bill.

However, I take a great deal of comfort in knowing that Stupid will have to come begging again in September. This is not a blank check, it's temporary--very temporary--funding. I would hope between now and then that somebody manages either to get through to Reid how important this is to the country, the people, and the party. Or maybe they can put arsenic in his soup.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. Blind loyalty to a party or politician is Orwellian.

"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all." --Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 1789

"Were parties here divided merely by a greediness for office,...to take a part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or moral man." --Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, 1795

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." --John Quincy Adams

[MuseRider]

15. Thanks for the great quotes! n/t