election day

This is what I woke to this morning: J explained that he was practicing his speech for running for President on election day. Nice. I'm telling you, the world would be a wonderful place if President J were in charge!

Interestingly, we've not really discussed elections or the democratic process with him yet. I mean, he's 7. Of course, he's gone to the polls with me each and every election day, so he's been an observer of the process. And this year I voted via absentee ballot because we were SUPPOSED to be in Ohio visiting friends this week (life circumstances prevented us from taking that trip, however), so he was able to both observe that and ask questions about it. I cast my ballot in the Town Clerk's office, and both kids had a bunch of questions and insight about what I was doing and why it was taking me so long (there were a lot of bubbles to fill in!), and the Town Clerk herself offered them information (I love it when they learn about stuff like that from folks actually involved in the process!). And The Map Man and I freely discuss politics with the kids in the room -- always a passionate but friendly discussion, as we both have very strong political opinions, but fortunately they jive nicely. I don't think either of us could peacefully live with someone at the opposite end of the political spectrum. I'm not sure how much of that the kids are soaking in. Hopefully just enough. Certainly not so much that it's discouraged J from playing at running for office.

We're not political party fans here at this house. And we worry desperately about the electoral system in this country. For the past two presidential elections, the person for whom the majority of the people cast their votes was not determined to be the president -- how does that possibly make any sense?? We would really like to see this country set up as a TRUE democracy, where the people vote for the best person for the job, without political party backing, which prevents some of the best folks for the job of having a shot at ever taking office just because they don't have a party's stamp of approval. The fact that votes are "wasted" on people running outside of the big two political parties bothers me greatly -- on the one hand, we are Independent voters ourselves, and I love the fact that we have more choices than just who the Dems or Reps care to give their campaign money and political backing to. But so often, those valuable votes cast for non-party candidates do nothing but give an advantage to the Republican candidate -- the folks who were really voting on the political left wind up having a direct hand in putting someone from the right into office. How does THAT make sense???

So I vote Democratic. Pretty much whoever the Dems put on the ballot, I'll vote for. But this isn't something I take lightly. A lot of life experience and thought has gone into deciding to vote this way. In the past, I carefully read through all of the candidates information, cast my vote for each very consciously. Usually I wound up voting Democratic. Occasionally I voted outside of the two big parties (my candidate never won in those instances, nor did they even come close the vast majority of the time). Once upon a time, I voted to re-elect a Republican governor in this state of CT, because I thought he was a decent man who had done a good job in his first term. With the blessing of his party, he went on to slash jobs and took us from a state surplus situation to a huge deficit (and eventually wound up being indicted for federal charges, serving time in prison rather than serving out the end of his term, but I suppose that's not the party's fault). I felt betrayed and burnt, and swore never to vote Republican again, and to do whatever I was able to do to prevent a Republican candidate from getting elected again. And I decided that casting my votes for the Democrats were the best way to go about it. Most of the time I really, REALLY like the Dem candidates. Sometimes not. Sometimes I like the Rep candidate better. But I've learned that it's never worth it to add fire to the Republican machine, because no matter how good a person an individual Republican candidate might be, they are still going to vote along party lines when it comes right down to it. (And why wouldn't they? Where is their re-election campaign money and support going to come from? It doesn't behoove any candidate to vote outside of their political party, which is, in my opinion, the biggest failing of the democratic system. Well, that and the electoral college. It's a toss up.)

I may not like the party system, but it's all we've got. I won't register as a Democrat. But if they wanted to put their campaign signs up in my front lawn, I'd let them. Which would make our Republican neighbors across the street a little miffed, I'm sure.

So, there. My political views spilled out for all to see. Happy Election Day! Get out there and vote, truly every single vote counts. Do it for your children. Do it for your town. Do it for your country. Just DO it! (Unless you're a Republican, in which case you can feel free to stay home.)