Election 2008

Well, I voted.

It wasn't easy to choose, except when a candidate was running unopposed. I don't vote for them. I figure they win by voting for themselves anyway. Mostly, those are judges.

I spoke with a man who stood ahead of me in line waiting to be allowed to enter the room wherein the voting took place. He languished about the process and swore that next year he would vote absentee. He said he makes the same vow every election.

I said that every election I swear I see no point in even voting. But every election I find myself standing in line awaiting my turn to cast my ballot. As much as my faith in the process has been assaulted I still come back. I'm cynical (I guess that comes with age), but I guess I haven't completely lost faith. If I had, I really should cease to vote. No. I believe I am like millions upon millions of others who have been blessed with the right to vote. I want to believe in the process more than I really do. There is so much doubt about it. Especially when reports air about dead people voting, and Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny. We learn real people being denied their right to vote. We read about people voting twice.

We need to believe the system works, despite inevitable corruption. We need to believe our voice has value, and so we vote. In all honesty, I cannot state for certain that voting works. I vote because I want to believe it does. That's what faith is. We go forward in spite of our doubts. We know corruption exists, but we trust that it exists in some other town or state. The people in my town would never behave so despicably. Would they?

Experience has taught me how to see through some of the crap politicians and especially the party loyalists throw around. Usually, this consists of a distortion of actual fact. One of the "biggees" this year is accusing one candidate of accepting big contributions from the evil banking industry. No mention is made, however, that the candidate supported by whoever is placing the ad also got big contributions from the banking industry. But this year things have been especially nasty. Candidates in this state have been having their homes vandalized with threatening messages spray painted on their garages and such. It isn't just one party, either. The loonies appear to be doling out their insanity with equal measure.

It isn't just the loonies, though. It's like just winning is no longer enough. The opponent must be destroyed in the process, so blatant lies are being told about everyone. I had someone telephone me from one of these campaign headquarters to tell me they wanted to talk to me about why I should vote for Whoever. I asked them why. They hung up. Someone else called me, but wouldn't identify the candidate they supported. What they wanted to know was whether I was voting Republican or Democrat. I told them the Republicans are mean and uncaring, and the the Democrats are emotional and stupid. They hung up.

I do not know who the best candidates are in this election. I know who I voted for, but I cannot say they were the best. It took a long time to decide, and I didn't decide on any race until I sat at the table with the ballot before me. No candidate in any race appears to fit my hope for the country. I guess my vision is just too naive. I miss the days of my youth. Back then, I knew everything. Now I know so little. (If you doubt me, just ask any young person and they'll tell you it's true.) But I want to believe. I have to believe.

Sometime tonight or tomorrow I will learn who the next president is. I will know who won the senate race and the congressional race. I will know who my state representative will be. If any, or all, of the people I voted for wins I will not rejoice. Neither will I moan if they lose. None of them represents me. Not really. Whoever wins, I only hope they will help make the next years better than the last. If they can help the country, hopefully that will make my life better, too.

Our systems are flawed and the people we elect to run those systems are flawed, but I wouldn't trade living here for the world. Every few years we get to try and make things better. Maybe this time we have. I hope so.

In God we trust. There is no other way.