Tuesday, November 2, 2010

It's all over but the shouting ... and the complaining.

Finally.
Just like pulling off a bandage, you have to do it quickly, without thinking. Otherwise, the pain will be too great and you'll just wind up leaving it on until it comes off in the shower. What am I talking about? Voting.
I was at my polling place at 6:35am. Number 6. I waddled into the booth, pushed a few buttons and viola! Off to work.
Incidentally, do you think that something is fishy when you sign that paper receipt with a number on it and they hang it on the back of the voting machine? I do. I think they can trace number 6 to the votes I cast and paste together my voting record. I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
It's a lot like trying to lose weight, the voting. We vote, thinking that we're doing something good, but we don't really know. It's like eating low-fat food and exercising to try to lose weight. You aren't sure if what you are doing is going to do any good, but you do it anyway.
The ads that ran for the better part of three months were non-stop screaming accusations and made me think that whomever I voted for would wind up being a colossal boob who I wouldn't want house-sitting my cat. I'm not sure that's what Thomas Jefferson wanted me to think about on Election Day, and I'm pretty sure he didn't run ads telling people that John Adams was not looking out for their best interests. I'm pretty sure he had grand ideas about improving the country, unlike the boobs on the ballot today.
It's 8:01pm, the polls are closed and the first results are coming in. With 1-percent of the vote counted, the winner is ... a guy who, in 4 years will be accused of being a boob.
And on it goes.

6 comments:

ME said...

LOVE IT!!!! How true how true!! I ALWAYS thought that little number "thingy" was a way to track our voting habits...Glad I'm not the only one...

I was number TWO at 9:30 and one of my KREZZY neighbors was at the check-in table... Don't they screen those folks??? I mean, he's a convicted FELON... MULTIPLE TIMES... And we're paying HIM to sit there... HECK, I'd have done it for a song and a dance...

Well, let's see what the future holds... For me, I'm a little scared

Kcoz said...

(The ads that ran for the better part of three months)

And this is why you will never hear in-depth news coverage about campaign finance reform on the network TV news shows, they make way to much money off the campaigns.

Later...

Handsome B. Wonderful said...

I'm glad that the candidate I chose (Michael Bennet) one but not because he's amazing. He's sufficient but I was mostly voting against his Tea Party opponent.

As for the ads, I pretty much avoided local channels during the last few months. So, that's how I avoided the majority of that onslaught.

Kcoz said...

"Rich media, poor democracy"
Here:
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2010/11/rich-media-poor-democracy

BTW, we live in a Republic and there is a difference, why do they always refer to our system of government as a democracy?

Handsome B. Wonderful said...

Ah, this brings back memories of my history and political science classes before getting my B.A.

Technically we are indeed a Republic but in practice it's more of a democratic Republic. Because, (for example) China is also a Republic but a communist one.

Anthony said...

There is so much crossover between newspaper, TV and radio that it's impossible to know what the motives are for news coverage.
Certainly, newspapers tend to lean either right or left, and their editorial boards usually make it clear.
What most of us do not know is which media outlets are owned by major corporations and how those ownership conflicts influence the sorts of advertising and editorial bias they demonstrate.

The Fox distinction is the easiest to uncover, but there are several others lurking.
And sadly, any campaign finance reform will be put together by the very people who would benefit the most from it, so I'd guess that it will only get worse.

Next comes the onslaught of Christmas ads, followed by Valentine's Day ... We're just here to absorb.