I voted, did you?
Most of you probably don’t know that I was an accidental candidate for state representative in New Hampshire two years ago. It’s a long story, but it comes down to the fact that I cared enough about my state that I inspired enough write-in votes to fall 11 short of winning. I want change. I want to see everyone take an active interest in bettering their world. Idealistic? Sure.
I’m sure many of you are already sick of negative campaigning, roundabout debates, nonstop election coverage, and quibbling pundits, but November 4th is Election Day in the United States, and I strongly recommend you get out and vote. “Oh, but it’s so busy, Runy! I don’t want to wait in line!” There are very few excuses to not vote. Don’t care about politics? Sure you do—how’s your stock portfolio looking these days? Paying $600+ a month to keep yourself on COBRA? Watching the decline of many public school systems? Struggling to figure out how to keep your home or put your children though college?
As Americans, we’ve been given the right and the privilege of casting our vote in a general election. People in many countries die trying to exercise that right. If you remember the 2000 Election, the Presidency came down to an incredibly narrow margin of votes. Your vote DOES count. Whether or not you follow “politics” (and here, I’d make the argument that everything is political), take a stand, read the news, and get to your local polling station—you might even get a rad sticker out of it*.
*Additionally, if you wear your little sticker out and about, many foodtype institutions (such as Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, and Ben & Jerry’s) will reward you for your patriotism.
Yup, I voted! I am a big fan of everyone taking an active interest in politics as well.
If BBB can have Storytime I think you can too :). I vote for you providing a more detailed version of how you almost got elected.
Any other votes?
I generally try to keep this blog as Druid centric as possible, with a few minor exceptions (and I felt like presidential elections qualified). I may at some point in time launch into the entire story, but it really just goes to show that, at any age, you can elect to take part in a democratic process, and that just about anyone (you know, with a brain) can run for office.
Krispy Kreme’s has a deal too? Makes me wish they didn’t close the only one in the area, even if I never went there. lol
I haven’t voted yet, I still have one more class left today so I expect to be in line for hours later. But I’m doing it, even if MA is a wicked blue state.
That’s pretty impressive, though, that you almost got written in as a rep. A good friend of my father’s is my district rep. and apparently it’s a lot of work.
Apparently. I’m not exactly close to one either, and I always feel weird looking for handouts (even when it’s a promo).
Way to show your true local vernacular with that “wicked” there. Where are you going to school in MA? I may be in the Midwest now, but New England will always be home. And you know, regardless of how you vote, regardless of what state you’re in, I still believe it’s important to do it. You never know how things will change.
It was a bit ridiculous and involved some document mix-up (which is why my official declination never made it to Concord). Had I not been planning on moving (which obviously forfeits the position anyway), I probably would have campaigned seriously. It’s a lot of work for essentially no money and a cool license plate.
Cool license plate? I had no clue!
I’m at Salem State College now. I used to go to Umass Darmouth. I’ve lived next to Salem most of my life, though.
That’s why voting is so important, if people don’t vote then the people who do win and that’s good for them but it cheapens the win and makes the loss even worse.
Learned something new today.
Didn’t know you were so motivated.
It’s very hard to believe, but I do have a rich and fulfilling life beyond the scope of Warcraft (although with admittedly less traveling as of late in this economy). UMass Dartmouth is in a pretty decent area; it actually wasn’t too far away from where I went to school in RI. In fact, there’s a Panera and a reasonably cheap movie theater around that way that we used to hit up every once in awhile. Near that big mall, or whatever.
I voted….. on October 14th. Darned Canadians and their copy-cat elections, I know =)
Anyways, good on you for participating in the process, Runy - that’s awesome. In the last Canadian election I volunteered for a local candidate and ended up answering policy-related emails that his constituents wrote in with - it was one of the most uniquely rewarding experiences in my life thus far. There’s nothing like democracy in action.
That’s right! I was actually just talking to a friend of mine who lives in Vancouver about the election a few weeks ago. She was saying that her local reps were literally knocking on every door in her area, which seems like a massive time commitment (from a single candidate), but a really cool way to bring politics to the home. Obviously my post was directed toward the whole American process, but the basic notion still applies anywhere.
I think it’s fantastic that you’ve been a participant in any way, shape, or form, but I think that everyone forgets that they, too, can be a part of an amazing democratic process just by showing up and penciling in a few arrows.
I also voted about two weeks ago. By mail in ballot. I seriously can not understand why everybody doesn’t do it this way. There were so many issues here in Colorado that there is no way I could have remembered all of them. But you get your ballot in the mail, read it and all the issues, think about it for a couple days and then vote. Do research if you want, you got plenty of time.
People who stand in line and most likely don’t know the issues until they step in the box and read them the first time baffle me. Also, hearing a commercial about how firemen want you to vote no on 43 or whatever is not being “informed”. I’m so happy that today is here, and tomorrow will be politic free.
I voted absentee (even for all the local elections) every year I was in college, and besides the hassle of actually making sure it gets sent to the correct address, it really was a lot easier. Many states, however, have restrictions on who can apply to receive an absentee ballot, and while you can lie and say that you’re not going to be around on election day, it seems rather silly that you’ve got to go through that sort of song and dance to get one. In my opinion, presidential elections should function as a National Holiday that everyone has off (so that everyone can take their time to get into the polls).
Unfortunately, most people just don’t know how to get information and don’t feel that they need to be responsible for KNOWING everything that will be on the ballot. Most states have sample ballots posted on their Secretary of State website, so that you can view all the language associated with each proposition. I had to go take a look at one a few weeks ago myself, because other than the big “medical marijuana” shebang, I had no idea what the rest of them were.
Again, it all comes down to personal responsibility.
I admit I did my ballot semi last minute. We require everyone in Washington to do a mail-in ballot, however when it comes down the crunch everyone runs down to the county auditor’s office and drops the ballot off. You honestly meet some good folks down there. In fact, half of us went to Starbucks right after and we talked politics for a good hour. Nothing angry, just casual politics and who thinks who will win.
As a first-time voter period (I admit I did not take it as seriously before), it was quite an experience. I was looking at every candidate, weighing what they were saying for weeks prior to voting and generally had fun doing all this research. Maybe I’m odd, but it what makes me happy.
Doing it last minute is certainly better than not doing it at all, and congratulations on becoming a voter!
I really enjoy political discourse, especially over drinks (like, um, coffee), but it usually gets very heated very quickly. It’s great if you can get together and have a logical discussion about what’s going on in the country and acknowledge that neither candidate has the perfect plan.
If only we could get voters as excited about local elections…
Well, politics being one of the topics you don’t introduce into polite conversation has earned it’s place for a reason.
You want to talk heated, talk to a life long Boomkin with full PVP gear about how excited you are to spec boomkin now that all your full PVP HEALER gear is so great for it. That gets down right nasty.
And for the record, your art is particularly awesome.
Whoot, thanks.
I am 22 and I’d like to capture my thoughts before America either elects a president who its first 26 presidents could have legally owned, or brazenly subverts the very ideals it was founded upon by manipulating numbers in a final embarrassingly overt goosestep towards corporate totalitarianism.
I am nervous. And not night-before-the-swim-test nervous or even night-you-lose-your-virginity nervous, it’s a low rumbling primal panic which I can only liken to Star Wars panic. Disney panic. The edge-of-your-seat-terror that makes you wonder if Skywalker’s doomed after he refuses to join Darth Vader and drops down into the abyss, if the wicked octopus or grand vizier or steroid-pumping-village-misogynist is going to wed/kill/skin the dashing prince and then evil people in dark funny costumes are going to take over the world… if it wasn’t a movie of course.
And tonight it’s not. It’s not a movie and yet I feel like Obama might as well be wearing an American flag cape while a decaying McCain, in a high-tech robotic spider wheelchair wearing an eyepatch and stroking an evil cat, gives orders to a sexy scheming Palin who marches back and forth through their sub-terranian campaign lair in four inch thigh-highs and full-body black leather catsuit bossing around the evangelical ants with a loooooong whip… umm… is this just me?
Anyway, the point is that things feel weird folks. I have friends who have peed in waterbottles to keep from interrupting a Halo-playing marathon who got off their asses/couches to volunteer for the Obama campaign not once, but many times. Friends so cheap their body content is at least 1/3 Ramen Noodle who donated a good deal of their hard-earned cash to the campaign. People have registered to vote in record numbers, and yet, something just doesn’t feel right. I think we should stop congratulating ourselves for just voting. To vote is a privilege which people have died for, and I think there’s a whole lot more to be done for the country than to simply help win an election every 4 years.
Hundreds of millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of man-hours spent on both sides by good-intentioned people who want to make a difference in an historic election, so many resources and voices and energies devoted to a single day. After tomorrow, half of that is going to have been a waste. And I can’t help but wonder what could have happened if all that muscle had been put towards something else, and what will happen to its momentum after the election has come and gone. Shouldn’t we be donating our money to good causes whenever we can? Helping people who don’t have? Dedicating some of our time to contribute to making the country which provides for us a better place? Of course a power shift is a hugely significant step on the path to great reform, but worrying about this election has been a wakeup call for me:
Even if Obama wins, we have not “won.” This isn’t a movie and we can’t toss every greedy lobbyist oil fatcat bigot down a reactor shaft. I think if we dedicate ourselves to the ongoing welfare of the country as much as we have to the outcome of this election, we’ll have a much better shot at coming closer to the overwhelming good the liberals hope Obama will usher in, but which no mere mortal could fully realize alone.
Which brings me to the other side. I’ve heard a lot of people claim that if McCain wins, they’re leaving. I heard the same thing about Bush’s reelection, and his unelection before that, and nobody seems to be leaving. And that’s fine. Because as much as I complain about certain political happenings, atrocities, etc., I really do like it here and I suspect most other people do too. We have New York and Hollywood, purple mountain’s majesty and sea to shining sea, we created jazz and country music and baseball and cars and lightbulbs and computers and that movie with hundreds of animated singing Chihuahuas! I mean who among the shivering Plymouth pilgrims ever imagined ordering hundreds of animated singing chihuahuas onto a magical box from an invisible information superweb?
The point being, if things don’t turn out the way I want tomorrow, I feel compelled, as a college-graduated adultish-type-person, to take a stand. And if I’m going to leave I’m going to leave. But if I’m going to stay I’m not going to sit around whining like I have for the past 8 years. It’s like when I don’t clean my room because it’s dirty and then I blame the dirt. So in my very indecisive way, before you and your screen, I’m declaring my intention to make some kind of stand in the event of -(Ican’tevensayit)-, and encouraging you to consider making one too…
Jump the ship or grab a bucket?
-Sigh-
Wasn’t everything so much easier back when the worst possible affront to your values was a PB&J sandwich cut diagonally with crust?
Anyways, I guess what I’m saying is that if we’re going to stay on board, we should probably be generous with our time and resources when times are tough even more than when the hero saves the day. Because what if he doesn’t? And what if he can’t? If we’re serious about real change, election day should only be the beginning of “Yes we can,” not the end.
Best,
Hannah Friedman
Hello, there.
I find it particularly interesting that you somehow found my website, which is a niche that doesn’t often garner any commentary from beyond the World of Warcraft spectrum, and then simply C&P’d an entire entry from your blog. Publicity? While I appreciate the sentiment and share many of your well-stated opinions (particularly RE: the “evangelical ants”), I can’t imagine you’re one of my regular readers and I try to keep that site free of political diatribe. To that end, if you’d like to engage in some form of political/intellectual discourse with me, by all means—shoot me an e-mail.
Regarding the election—it’s been quite the ride. While I’ve been a fervent supporter of Obama through and through, it’s also pertinent to mention that McCain doesn’t represent the Evil Empire (Palin notwithstanding). Throughout his career, McCain has largely been a Centrist, and that’s why (in the past) he hasn’t been able to pull past the primaries until now. His reputation of bi-partisan work, service to his country, and frank discussion with the media deserves a nod—but that wasn’t the campaign we saw him run this go around. To appeal to the base authoritarian right, we saw him compromise his personal ideals and make a series of bad choices (tacking Palin onto his ticket especially) that ultimately blew up in his face. Any of McCain’s worthwhile ideas or throwbacks to his record in the Senate were thrown wildly out of context and overshadowed by the Bush-Albatross hanging around his neck. I find it terribly sad. Had he run a campaign that smacked of his gracious concession speech rather than the vitriol of his advertising, we might have had a much closer election.
To that end, America is a reactionary state. Few other nations could rally behind a total ideological and political reversal in only eight years, and this election was just as much about giving the metaphorical finger to the Republicans as it was about Obama himself. His campaign was very nearly flawless, and beyond his message, I think we can attribute much of his success to his ground crew’s intense dedication and organization. We can’t really forget about race now either, can we?
It’s wildly idealistic to believe that an enormous majority of Americans will see past their own noses and devote themselves fully to a cause. I think you marginalize the incredible importance of how many people actually voted this year. Consider the demographics of who voted, the redistribution of the electoral map, and think hard about how many folks will be taking part in political discourse in the future. Obama and McCain have inspired Americans to leave their comfort zones and take a stand, even if it means they only filled in an arrow on a ballot. It’s a step in the right direction. We’re empowering voting, and by doing that, we’re telling Americans that their votes do indeed count, and so do their collective voices. I believe that this election has illustrated exactly what hardwork and group participation can accomplish, and I’m confident that Barack’s administration will be leading the charge for civic accountability and service.
And yet, in the wake of such a passionate and dramatic political upheaval, November 4th also saw the demise of civil liberties. While much of America looked to their television screens for the waving Obamas standing Kennedy-esque on stage, states like Florida, California, and Arkansas voted to ban gay marriage or prevent gay couples from giving unwanted children a loving home. The black community has taken a gigantic step forward, but we’ve simultaneously placed the gay community on the pedestal of “Second Class Citizenry.” How easily we’re distracted.