Mid-Term

It is the political season.  I have done my best to switch off the noise. ....  to no avail.  I cannot deny my roots.  Political discussion was one of the staples of family dinner growing up.  I was taught to respect the process as it is the only game in town and any refusal to participate at least at the ballot box served me up just what I deserved.

Mom more than once while watching Huntley & Brinkley on NBC, " If they don't vote, they have no right to complain".

Dad would grunt his agreement and continue reading his paper, his book, his notes on the latest garden plan or Heathkit electronic gadget he was putting together.

So here we are a week or so from the Mid-term elections.  What to do?  Vote for an individual?  Vote my ideals?  Vote a straight party ticket?  Or vote as I have for at least the last 15 or 16 elections and cast my vote in defense.

I have always felt most comfortable in the middle.  Straddling that imaginary fence that divides Left from Right.  Held in low esteem by the lock n loaded believers on both sides during much of the year, yet come election time, both sides try to schmooze my vote from me by cranking back the hardline rhetoric they use most of the time.  Suddenly they become "moderates" and I am supposed to throw my straddlin the fence sad self on their side on the first Tuesday of November every other year.

Bullshit.

Both the Democrats and the Republicans are responsible for whatever it is our country is now.  They share equally in my mind the good times and the bad times they have put us through.  ....................  At least up until the Right went off the deep end some years back and allowed the John Bircher-Koch mentality to hijack their message.   Because of their "I won't play unless we use my ball" mentality, I am voting against them from now on.  .......  Hmm ....... Actually I guess I started voting this way a couple of elections back.  Regardless, no Republican will get my vote.

Later ........................................