Saturday, October 18, 2008

Voting a Straight Ticket - An Unusual First


Demeur commented in my last post about my Independent ways. He was responding to my mistrust of either party>

".......This is not like Canada where parties must negotia(t)e for power. This is a strict two party system. I could be more objective if not all the power had not shifted to one party. As the saying goes absolute power corrupts and we are witnessing that now on a big scale. Yes I realize that the Dems could do the same things should they have as much. But can you stand back and be a mere spectator to the destruction that will affect you in a very large way?"

I am not sure if this is a rebuke or not. But his point is well taken. The Republicans need to be taken down more than a few notches. The party faithful should hang their heads in shame over the sleaze and nasty tactics their leadership has decided to use. Add in the fact that most if not all their policies from domestic to foreign to economic have left us worse off than we were 8 years ago and it is grossly apparent they have no clue how to govern. Just how to hold onto power.

My problem is, I have been looking for them to slip and fall ever since 1980. Ronnie ruined that party for me. Yet I saw little of any worth on the other side of the aisle. The Democrats had no answer nor did they seem that interested in going on the attack. Even though I voted for them, the last two Democratic Presidential candidates underwhelmed me with their lack of leadership and luke warm efforts in the face of bulldog campaigning by the Republicans. They obviously did not deserve to win. They did not want it enough.

As the years turned into one decade, then two, and are now closing in on a third, I have finally found a candidate I can be enthusiastic about. And he is not a Republican. I have also decided that this year I will withhold my vote from any Republican I can. Just a small punishment on my part to let them know, their party is out of touch and without a clue. I have never done that before. There are many good people running who are Republican. But they get squat from me this time. They do not deserve my vote because of the poison they have allowed to ruin their party.

I know voting for anyone besides a Republican is not ensuring I will get the best candidate elected. This election for me is not just about who will govern the best, but who needs to be spanked. The Republicans need a good thrashing. They need to re-examine their priorities, their platform, and their conscience. What they have been supporting the last 28 years is a sad petty selfish group of leaders who have proven they could care less about anything except staying in power and keeping their high end buds comfortable and the money flowing, but not in our direction. I hope for a sound beating across the board. Solid Democratic majority in both houses and Barack sitting in the White House. The time has come for a changing of the guard.

But I still do not trust the Democrats. They have proven they too can become full of themselves and end up strutting instead of governing with some common sense. Hopefully lessons have been learned since Newt led the Republicans as they took over Congress starting in 1994 with "The Contract with America" and then the White House in 2000. The Democratic leadership needs to approach things with more caution and not get lost in issues that have little or nothing to do with meat and potatoes issues. Energy, Economy, Healthcare, Education, Foreign Policy and our infrastructure should be their priorities. This country needs better than what the Republicans have given us. I wish the Democrats luck. For this election, I am in their corner. But I will be watching. Get it right this time.

13 comments:

Middle Ditch said...

It was a bit like that when the tories were still in power. A very lackluster approach to actual governing. And thus eventually labour came in power and now they are heading the same way.

amidnightrider said...

The so called morals of the Republican party is what drove me to the Democratic Party. I am one of the original "Clinton Repulicans".

When the party was infiltrated by the religious right and instituted Orwell's 1984, by controling Americans lives, they lost me.

To them I'm a gay loving, god hating, gun stealing, baby killing, socialist.

To me it's tolerance and American.

Gary ("Old Dude") said...

The liberals have had a majority in congress for the last two years----yet you would blame the last two years of budgets on the republicans, when can we expect anything positive out of the current do nothing democratic congress? I bet when they "allow" the bush tax reductions to automatically lapse and tax rates go up several percent in each bracket that they won't count as a democratic tax increase ??? boy them libbies are slick talkers.

Demeur said...

A little background on the budget Gary, the republicans filibustered all that the Dems tried to do the last two years. If you'd bother to actually read before opening your trap you'd know that. I'll be glad when the taxes go up because most of that will fall on large corporations that aren't paying much if any in taxes anyway. When corporations have an 'office' in the Caymen Islands and pay no taxes that's just wrong.

Demeur said...

Crum - No rebuke intended just making an observation on the state of things. See my post:

http://demeur.blogspot.com/2008/10/excesses-bubbles-and-busts.html

MRMacrum said...

demeur-I knew it really wasn't. But you did make a good point. The rigid two party system we have in place is one I hate so very much. And one reason I do not hold as much regard for either party. They have conspired between them to lock out or make almost impossible the formation of any viable 3rd or 4th or even 5th party. I don't like having only two choices.

MRMacrum said...

Old Dude - you can't skate like that. Your crew had the White House and the Congress for 6 years. Just what did your crew accomplish, besides getting us into at least one unnecessary war, run the economy into the ground, and make mince meat out of the balance of powers in the 3 branches? I would say your useless party has way more to answer for than a 2 year old Democratic Congress. Get a clue, look other places than Fox News for your "facts". You should be ashamed of your party and yourself for even trying to paint the Republicans as being Guardians of Democracy.

1138 said...

"boy them libbies are slick talkers"

Who's President just came to the coughers for 700 billion on what was a blank check and if we didn't move "RIGHT NOW" it was going to be all over for us all?
Yet it's been a month and they can't figure out how to write checks, or get banks to make loans?
I've yet to hear even one of the economicly conservative Republicans explain how this can do anything but put the country and the world into a massive spiral of hyperinflation and unemployment unseen since the 1919-1933 Weimarer Republik.

Yeah and your throwing mud at the economically placid Clinton years when inflation was near zero and unemployment nearly became "solvable".

Old Dude, Don't get me started or I'll go back to Nixons Wage and Price freezes.
You guys have no record to stand on. Amend that, No good record to stand on.

Keep me going and we'll get back to the Hayes administration.

BBC said...

They are just mirrors of each other. And nothing is going to change, until it topples.

All you can do is cover your own ass. Or your wife's tits, and your credit cards so that she can't see them.

Midnight Rider.... Morals in politics? On either side? That's pretty funny, you amuse me.

I should have stayed out for eight days camping instead of just four.

1138 said...

E-mail alert cautions that voters who select a "straight ticket"
option at the polls may not end up casting a vote for a
presidential candidate.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/straightticket.asp

That's what says.

I guess I'll just have to hope they don't erase my vote.

This is unreal.

MRMacrum said...

1138 - Thankfully in my small town we still use paper ballots filled out in the same god awful homemade booths with Aunt Millie's old dresses for curtains pinned up with safety pins on them. The same 2 inch pencils hang from the same strings that hung there when I first voted in Maine back in 1982.

When I walk in the door of the old Town Hall, the old ladies in charge are sitting sternly behind the folding table that doubles as a bingo and/or Bean Supper table most weeks. One checks me off the list of registered voters, another hands me my ballot. When I am done, I stuff my filled out by hand ballot into a wooden box made from scrap #2 pine and painted red. It has this spiffy high falutin sliding wooden top with another stern lady's hand on it. If there is a seperate ballot with state initiatives, another box is used for them.

Once I stuff the box or boxes, she slides the covers in place, and I move on. The death ray look on those women's kissers fill me with confidence that there will be no voter fraud in Acton. Of course knowing everyone in town helps. Strangers would have a hard time pulling any shenanigans with the ladies running the show.

Damn, I love voting in Acton. No machines. No computer touch screens. And no waiting. In and out in 5 minutes usually.

BBC said...

I filled out my voting form this morning. They mail them to us here and we can mail them back or take them to the courthouse before election day.

I wanted to vote for sucking Palin's tits and screwing her on a White House couch but I didn't.

I voted for the brown monkey, what I see as the lessor of two evils. Oh fuck, Palin would be more fun to camp with, nature lover that she is.

Well, too late now, I already sealed the the envelope. I'll just fuck her by proxy, works for me every time.

Anonymous said...

Now how's that for two delightfully contrasting posts on the joys of voting.

Crummy and bbc, you two are real works of art. One a Mark Twain, the other a Lenny Bruce.

Delightful.