Election Musings

Now that the election draws nigh, I have a hope...  Two, actually.

The first is that people will get out there and vote.  Get off your duff, and do the thing that so many people have fought over the years to ensure your right to do.  Whether you support the same candidate I do, or not (naturally I'd prefer you did, but I won't insist).  You don't like either Romney or Obama?  Well, there are 16 parties on my Colorado ballot - pick someone!

Don't like any of them?  Use your write-in vote, if your state allows.  Please don't waste your vote on Snoopy ('68, '72), Bill the Cat ('80, '84) or other characters; a write-in vote is certainly a more effective protest if there is a real person that can be counted.  Fictional characters will just make it an invalid ballot, and you might as well not have gone at all.

Help out any neighbors with transportation problems, too, giving them a ride to polling places, or watching someone's little darlings so they can get out and vote.

My second wish is for after the election is over.  If your candidate has won, put away any hubris (there is no room for the "Nyah, nyah" crap).  There will be no "mandate" for any side in this election.  Conversely, if your candidate has lost, put away any bitterness you may feel.  You fought hard for your beliefs, but the majority did not agree.

Now more than almost any other time, politicians need to stop the obstructionism of the last few administrations and actually accomplish something.  Be adults!  You cannot run a democracy of 360 million people without compromise.  Represent your constituents to the best of your ability, all of your constituents.  While there may be portions of your agenda that you are unwilling to compromise on, do what you can to work with the other side(s).

And whatever you do, please don't be like one of my college roommates.  He bitched and moaned incessantly over this politician or that law, just pretty much never stopped.  Yet he refused to vote.  Screw that!  If you can't even be bothered to vote, to make that little bit of effort toward a system that you can support, don't whine to me.  You haven't earned that right.