Since when did I begin to care so much about politics? It is not so much the outcome of what is unfolding tonight in terms of the election, but how I believe that it unfolded.
It began for me by looking at the election results for my county, and seeing that there is only one contested Republican that won. This does not bother me, what bothers me though is that almost all of the winners won by an amount that is almost completely identical with the number of straight party ticket votes.
I have heard many educated people talk about there being some qualification other than age for voting. Examples include, a certain level of education attained, a certain level of income, or even holding voting to happen on one day. I don't agree with the examples listed, but I do feel like every citizen should do his or her civic DUTY to research the candidates.
Allowing an option for a straight ticket vote only enables an absent civic duty. This goes for both Republican and Democratic parties. I believe that not only should this not be an option when voting, but that there should also not be any party affiliation of one individual listed on the ballot. I believe that then you would end up with people voting the way they do for judges - either blindly or with a well prepared civic duty.
I performed my civic duty before voting. I ended up voting not only for Republicans and Democrats, but I even voted for the Libertarian candidate for some seats. Maybe it is because I have become a parent and this sort of stuff crosses my mind now, but I am going to make sure that my children see the value in civic duty.
[Update: Obama has been announced as our next President. I do look forward to his Presidency, and I hope that the idea of change he has spoken of can happen.]
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Rants and Raves
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3 comments:
Unfortunately, I think many people have narrowed down their political beliefs into strict categories that either go Republican or Democrat and nothing else. This doesn't bode well for bipartisanship to ever become the norm, which is unfortunate since we could accomplish so much more if we could just find a little bit of common ground. I may be remembering my history wrong, but perhaps George Washington had it right when he warned against the formation of political parties in his farewell address upon leaving office.
No you are remembering your history correctly, But I don't know if I agree with you concerning little hope for bipartisanship. One hope I have from this election is that people realize they have a voice. Once you believe this you can begin to enact change for the better of the country.
I know many people in Houston picked the "vote all Democrat" (well, there really aren't that many Democrats here, I think, but you get my meaning) and then backed up the screens specifically to vote for a Republican judge who was key along with the Mayor in getting us back on our feet after Ike.
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