Primary Voting Time

[netmouse]

Last night thatguychuck went door-to-door with me to ask Democrats in my precinct to write me in for Precinct Delegate (Ward 5, Precinct 6). We split up the list, odds and evens, and campaigned from right after dinner (which chuck cooked while I organized the lists) to right after dark (Thank you, Chuck!). It was great to have a companion as upbeat and forward as he is to walk around with. I especially admired how outgoing he was to people we encountered on the street.

One such encounter sticks out in my mind this morning. As this fellow approached us I asked if he was voting in the Primary. He got a bit surly and declared as he passed us that he didn't vote at all. Chuck called after him, "You should vote, man, it makes change happen!" to which he responded, "That's a lie."

I believe this attitude is pervasive in our country, and I hope you will resist this kind of hopelessness and go out and participate today. Vote! It's not just a right, it's a responsibility.

A number of the people I spoke to were not so hopeless but were very concerned. Our president can't put a sentence together. Our children are not learning handwriting any more, or history, or how to build things and do science. Our country is facing a competitive international scene that is largely angry and disappointed with us. It is time for change.

There are many things that one can do to try to effect change. One of them is vote. I encourage you to vote in your local primary today (Updated to add: or whenever your primaries are, where you live).

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

We have primaries in September, but I take the point.

K.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

I certainly vote for President, Governor, and Michigan's senators and congressmen. But below that level I don't know the names of the candidates or what their positions are. Which party they are in is, sadly, no guide.

The problem with what you're saying, if I understand it correctly, is this. "Change" is a rather vague thing to say. Effect what change? What's wrong in Ann Arbor's Democratic Party that needs to be changed, at the level of Ann Arbor Democratic Precinct Delegates? For that matter, what is a Precinct Delegate? What is this primary for? And why is it that total strangers think that merely by interrupting us on the street, they can persuade us to trust them that their unidentified "change" will be in a positive direction?

Where do we get the idea that every citizen should flip a coin, throw a dart, and vote whether they have an opinion or not? At the national level things are abysmal, but locally I don't have problems which are visibly connected to a political solution. You know things are going well when the topics being voted on locally are numbingly boring civic administrivia on which 90% of the population eligible to vote does not possess the specialized expertise necessary to form an educated opinion.

I suggest that a random vote in the wrong direction for a stranger's name which is no more recognizable than a string of gibberish phonemes, with no perceptable connection for or against Bush, children's education, or international competition, is truly not useful. So, instead of encouraging people to vote, perhaps you should encourage people to have a position to vote about, and point to non-partisan informational resources they can trust to be unbiased.

On one more note; I am so used to advertisements meaning "don't wait" when they tell me to buy something "today," that it actually took a moment to realize "vote in your local primary today" means that you are saying the primary elections are taking place today, Tuesday, August eight.

[skzbrust.livejournal.com]

Well, as you know, I agree with the fellow who thinks that is not how change happens. But that is neither here nor there. I'm more interested in how you are feeling about this. What sorts of feelings do you get from politics at this level? I get the impression it is exciting. What else?

[mjwise.livejournal.com]

Change? New direction? I agree, but the two-party stranglehood on this country admits no competition. This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Paul) is as close as I have to someone who represents my views in Washington. People are cynical because they are faced with (maybe) two similar choices on most ballots. Had, in 2004, the national presidential debates featured only those individuals who had qualified for enough state ballots to win the presidency, only 5 or 6 individuals would have been at the debates. They may have even been interesting as a result. Certainly do-able, but not done.

There is significantly little actual diversity on most ballots. Understandably, a great deal of the populace doesn't get too excited about voting.