It was about 11 a.m. this morning before I had a chance to get out to vote. The polls opened at 8 a.m., and I was number 32 in my district. In three hours, 31 people had voted. How sad.
I don't know what the final tally ended up being (there might have been a surge), but it seems to me a lot of people can't be inconvenienced to vote. I have a couple theories as to why that is. Some feel disenfranchised, some simply don't care, and others can't be inconvenienced. But the worst are those who feel their vote doesn't count. I think it does.
Quickly, I really do hate all that "rah rah, civic duty" BS. There was an editorial cartoon in our paper today showing a revolutionary war soldier and a modern solider both saying "we've done our part, now you have to do yours." Sentimental malarky, I say, especially in Nebraska, where I live. Nothing rests on my vote. No person is going to be elected or not elected, no amendment passed or not passed, no ghost of Paul Revere sad or not sad because I used a number 2 pencil and filled in the little circles. Truthfully, unless you're a candidate seeking my vote, what I do in the ballot box doesn't matter.
So why do it? Personally, I do it to cancel out the vote of a conservative.
If there's one thing the right does well, it's mobilize. They self-destruct, sure, but when they mobilize they're deadly in elections. So, even in the darkest GOP days after September 11, I showed up at all the polls and voted for people who didn't have a chance and I did it because of my very real vote cancelled out the other very real vote of someone I disagree with. Yes, there are more of them especially here, and yes they're probably going to win and yes my vote doesn't make a difference. All this is true. I still get a charge over cancelling out the vote of some Evangelical voting, Rush Limbaugh listening, war mongering, Iraq supporting, trickle down fan with a flag magnet on their obscene SUV. And I get to do it every single time.
I do it because someone very real gets their vote nilled because I took the time to drive a couple miles and take a half hour out of my day. Fuck them, I'm voting.
And I did. And I will continue to, even in this reddest of the red states. I may never know victory, but I sure know what schadenfreude tastes like.
After something so bitter, here's something a touch sweeter.
1 comment:
I try not to vote strictly along party lines, finding it counter-productive, but then I saw a different cartoon in the paper a few days ago and decided to do just that just to give Paul Fell the finger.
I !!@#%*!!ing hate wonks.
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