If every vote counts, why do I feel cheated?

Did you do your civic duty today? I guess I should have reminded you yesterday to vote today. Because unless you live on the west coast, the polls are closed. (Any chance that I have a secret west coast lurker reading this? I doubt it. I think the bulk of my audience is limited to a small smattering of folks in PA, OH, and NY. If you put all those together, they spell Paohny -- a pony made of baloney. Or bologna. Your choice.)

And speaking of meats made of fillers, is anyone else as disillusioned with politics as I am? I almost didn't vote because I have no confidence in anyone.

So I have a dirty little secret to expose: I voted along party lines. Egads! Yes, I voted for people simply because of the party to which they belong. Ironic, don't you think, given that I'm registered as an Independent?

I'm just so distraught over the current state of affairs in our nation that I hoped I could help to tip the power in the other direction enough to stop some of the madness. So there you go, yes, I voted Democrat. That means I voted for Bob Casey instead of Rick Santorum, even though Ricky was my college commencement speaker and I saw him one time at Lu Lu's Noodles in Oakland. Ever since his infamous and idiotic "man on dog" interview, he's annoyed and concerned me. I'm not sure that Bobby is really up to the challenge of being a U.S. Senator, but I'm hoping he can't do much damage. But then, that was my rationale for voting for Bush the first time around. I wasn't paying attention to politics then, and hadn't taken the time to learn about him or Gore. When it came time to vote in 2000, I mistakenly thought, "Well, Bush looks like the lesser of two evils." By the time the second presidential election rolled around, I was in "ABB" mode -- Anybody But Bush. Hell, I was ready to vote for Al Sharpton if he'd won the Democratic nomination.

But back to Rick and Bob. I saw a televised debate between Santorum and Casey and just kept thinking, "This is the best the Democrats could do?" It was sad, really. Listening to Santorum almost made me believe in him. I'm not sure if it's Casey's speech impediment or lack of focus that makes him look stupid, but he did not fare well.

But like I said, I'm hoping that having a few more Democrats in government will force the politicians to look for bi-partisan solutions and provide some sort of checks and balances on our apparently fearless -- and feckless -- leader. Or maybe it will just bring government to a grinding halt for two years. We'll see...

Comments

[Allyson]

I totally understand--I did the same thing. And you know what bugs me is that so many people think that if you vote democrat you CAN'T be a Christian, and that if you ARE a Christian you ONLY vote Republican. Like the last Presidential election, when I voted for Kerry because he wasn't George W. Bush, I had to sit in church while we had a pastor-led congregational prayer thanking God that Bush had won. I wanted to jump up waving my arms shouting, "I didn't vote for him! I didn't vote for him!" But I didn't of course. Really though, I always just want to vote "no" and be done with it. Just dump all the candidates and get new ones.