Vote!
November 2nd, 2004Like you need me to tell you.
Voting this morning wasn’t too bad. A small line. I would imagine it will get crazier as the day progresses.
When I was a kid, my dad was a political junkie (runs in the family) and he’d take us down to the local paper, on a school night! and watch the results come in. It was a cool thing to see the votes being reported in real-time. My dad would drink the complimentary apple cider and schmooze with the press, the onlookers and try to talk to us about what was happening. It was pretty cool. Our Sunday lunch/dinners were always loaded with political disucssion. I have a couple of siblings who disagreed with my dad, and the discussions got pretty heated, usually with my dad calling bull or horseshit and one of the siblings muttering something under their breath. Not unlike the scene in Ice Storm where Christina Ricci is going off about NIxon.
My dad was a city councilman who left politics to help my mom with her business when her partner wanted out. My great-grandfather was a mayor. My mom said that my great-grandmother believed that women should be allowed to vote, and was more liberal than my great-grandfather. Apparently, she was hard of hearing and their political arguments were loud and fierce. I’ve always been drawn to C-SPAN and politics. I’ve just never had the gonads to jump in all the way.
No matter who wins, today I think of my dad and how he’s most likely rolling in his grave with my political leanings. o
I heard a person on CNN say It doesn’t matter who gets…you could a potato in the oval office and America will still be fine.
I guess I am not sure what to think of it, but I found funny.
Kerry/Edwards
Cheers for voting. I voted last week with my absentee ballot. Hopefully, someone will be winner by a margin other than error, and then this whole mess will be behind us.
I meant I found it funny.
A potato …or is it potatoe?
THE POOR VOTER ON ELECTION DAY.
THE proudest now is but my peer,
The highest not more high;
To-day, of all the weary year,
A king of men am I.
To-day, alike are great and small,
The nameless and the known;
My palace is the people’s hall,
The ballot-box my throne!
Who serves to-day upon the list
Beside the served shall stand;
Alike the brown and wrinkled fist,
The gloved and dainty hand!
The rich is level with the poor,
The weak is strong to-day;
And sleekest broadcloth counts no more
Than homespun frock of gray.
To-day let pomp and vain pretence
My stubborn right abide;
I set a plain man’s common sense
Against the pedant’s pride.
To-day shall simple manhood try
The strength of gold and land;
The wide world has not wealth to buy
The power in my right hand!
While there’s a grief to seek redress,
Or balance to adjust,
Where weighs our living manhood less
Than Mammon’s vilest dust,–
While there’s a right to need my vote,
A wrong to sweep away,
Up! clouted knee and ragged coat
A man’s a man to-day
- John Greenleaf Whittier, 1848
Potato.
I’m Kimberley H. and I approved this post.
(Go Kerry!)
I’m a Canadian who is very interested in the outcome of this election as I feel, like many others do, that the results will have a profound impact on all of North America, if not the world. Several celebrities (and other non-celebrities, notably my friends) have publicly stated that if Bush wins that they’d consider moving to another country as they weren’t sure they were living in a safe country anymore. I’ve been reading alot of the discussions on this website and I wonder what some of you think of that? Do you consider this to be reactionnary? Problematic? Not sure what I’d do if Stephen Harper (similar in scope to George Bush, but not quite as right-winged as I think the right-wing in states like Texas actually uses the farthest right in Canada as a starting point) won the leadership in Canada.
Nah. I bet your Dad is tickled silly that he has a son who cares and takes action. You and Dooce seem to seek change for the betterment of the U.S. and it’s citizens, as well as our fellow Earth-dwellers.
Most of us want the same things…
I bet PoppaBlurb is mighty proud.
I can think of men who were less effective and more dangerous than a potato(e).
I’ve already settled on Vancouver as my new hometown if Bush wins the election. If Bush is in then I’m out.
Gay men say NO to Bush!!! And that goes for the president too!!!
I voted a few weeks ago and cannot wait for this election to be over. I second what one previous poster said - may the winner win by a large enough margin that litigation isn’t necessary and this doesn’t drag out.
My comment did not post. I QUIT!
Politics is genetic, even if you disagree with your parents you still get “it”. I’ve got it BIG time!
Go Kerry!
I voted - and NOW it’s time for the post-election litigatin process! Yippee!
i love voting. i’ve never missed an election, even the lamest levies and primaries. i still get a huge thrill when i vote. i remember the first time i vote like other big first times.
the little old lady poll workers were so excited for me and my dad took me to dairy queen afterward.
I am so excited to vote and even more excited at the possibility that Bush could lose. Oh, sweet relief!
Thanks, Jon. You rock!
I wish I had a chance of ousting Bush, but I love in Texas. When 34 electoral votes are a given for a candidate every single time, it chaps major hide. I voted for Kerry this morning. So did the guy in front of me and the girl behind me… and my hubbie will later today. And hopefully it will mean something.
Well yeah, I “love” here, too… but that’s not what I meant. Geez.
I won’t leave the country if W wins, nor if he steals the election. As a (mostly) moderate, I feel I have an obligation to the country to stay. If every rational person left, America would be a nation of extremists. Besides, I still love this country, and I’m willing to fight to protect it from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Even when those enemies are sitting in the White House.
Oh yeah–here’s to hoping tonight ends with me drunkenly renaming the cat “Kerry” while letting her lick champagne from my fingers. Go Dems!
This morning I voted in CA. My peeve is that the polling location I voted at did not have a pen at each booth, thereby making it completely obvious that I was writing in a candidate. In addition to that, it wasn’t clear where to write in the candidate and I didn’t want to screw it up. Since they already knew I was writing in, I asked for the specific spot and they handed me this piece of paper with all of the different ways to misspell a particular write-in candidate’s name. It was like, “Well since you are writing someone in, we assume you are an idiot, and here are all of the spellings we will accept, since you are an idiot.”
Voting is a not just deciding who will be next. It is supporting what you truly believe in and voting for the person that most represents your beliefs. I know that CA will go to Kerry. He doesn’t need my vote to win. But I wanted one more voice out there to scream “CHANGE”… or at least peek out from the little ballot.
As history shows, even though the underdog may not win, the more votes they get, the more likely they are to be heard.
It seems like political arguments within the family are often the most heated. The majority of my family votes Republican, which is pretty sad, but not unexpected. I wouldn’t mind it so much if one of them could explain their views to me, or if a single conversation with my sister didn’t end with her telling me that I’m going to have to look Jesus in the eye one day and explain myself.
“Hello Jesus. Sorry about that liberal stuff, but you gave me a brain so I figured I was supposed to use it. If I’d known otherwise I would have voted Republican.”
jon, thought you might appreciate this:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/hilltop/1085853.html?view=5442461#t5442461
I know it’s still early, but the early polling numbers (mydd.com) are coming out. Kerry is looking good so far.
Jon,I thought about my dad this morning, too. He was a veteran of the Korean War and an Independent voter who was behind Kerry all the way. Unfortunately, he died suddenly this past July. I wish he could have been here to vote today.
You’re lucky that you had such a short line at your voting location, especially since you took your daughter along with you. I live in Columbus, Ohio, arrived at the polls at 9:25 this morning and waited ONE HOUR AND FORTY MINUTES to vote. Good thing I took two magazines along to read! At least there wasn’t anyone challenging voters at my polling place.
It’s gonna be a LONG night in the swing states.
Greg: Shit man, I didn’t know you had to be a Christian to vote Republican! They must have thought I “looked” Christian at the polling place, ’cause they let me vote. And a registered Democrat at that.
No offense “Barb”, but what the hell are you talking about?
Just got back from voting in Columbus, Ohio and well, damn. 2.5 hour wait of which 1.5 hours were in the rain. Awesome. But well worth the wait. I’ve read that there is apparently some “voter intimidation” going on in Ohio. There were certainly zealots on both sides at my polling place but at least everyone was civil. Anyone trying to intimidate anyone to vote, be it to the right or the left, deserves a swift kick in the junk.
I voted for celibacy. No dick, no bush. Is that too risque for blurbomat? If yes, my apologies. I won’t do it again. Well, I’d vote the same way again, I just wouldn’t phrase it that way again. Does that make any sense?
Here’s what I am counting on (well, not really, but it’s fun to be a pundit):
Virgos are more likely than people of other astrological signs to show up at the polls AND virgos are more likely to be democrats, at least with the women virgos. Therefore, Kerry wins.
My polling place was friggin’ Romper Room this morning. The poll workers were all clearly stoned to the bejesus and it took some of the old folks a good 20 minutes to figure out the voting machine. But my area of CA is overwhelmingly Republican, so the majority of knuckle-draggers isn’t a complete surprise.
If Kerry loses, I’m totally snagging a plasma screen TV when the riot starts.
What really offends me is the viciousness of the anti Bush position taken by so many in these pages. For or against Kerry or Bush, America is diminished generally by the relentless disprespect you show your own President. You also shame the position of being a Democrat by making a loathing of the President your single issue.
Hey WN in Canada. I also have many friends who are ready to split if Bush is elected. I find that deeply dissapointing. If that tool is elected, I feel it my duty to stay here and fight the fight. People likes us need to stick it out and breed. This is my country! And I will not give it up to a bunch of greedy liars! Change, evolution is inevitable. Something has got to give, and I want to be here when it happens. Even if we have many more years of fighting those idiots - my conscience would get the better of me if I hightailed to another land.
jon, it strikes me that you may be carrying on a tradition here. i understand you had baby Leta there helping to cast your vote. what is it they say about those apples not falling far from the tree?
thanks so much for keeping us all inspired during this amazing, too real for t.v. election season.
Kerry-Edwards ‘04.
Voted for Kerry about 3 hours ago. Possibly heading to the Kerry headquarters in downtown Chicago. If Bush wins, my boyfriend and I am planning to start a riot. Any takers?
Get a grip, Derek. This is politics. And if Bush hasn’t earned our “relentless disrespect” by bombing the shit out of Iraq for no good reason after lying to the people who elected him about why he was dragging us to war, then what, pray tell, should we say about him?
But this is the best line of the day: “You also shame the position of being a Democrat by making a loathing of the President your single issue.” Is this Karl Rove or Derek?
Wow, we –are– planning on starting a riot.
I’m going to attach the word “relentless” to everything I say from now on:
“I have a need to perform relentless drinking”
“I have to engage in relentless peeing”
“I’m so angry, I’m giving you the relentless finger”
“You’re relentlessly boring”
“She’s relentlessly ugly”
There’s so many possibilities!
P.S.: I voted blue in a yellow state, and I’m proud of it.
Derek, I seem to recall a similar “relentless disrespect” and “loathing” of a sitting President during the previous two terms. Might that man have been a Democrat?
You might not have been one of those folks, but it’s still a “pot calling the kettle black” issue.
I voted Libertarian in a blue state, only because Massachusetts is fairly guaranteed to be a Kerry state and I want to help the Libertarians along to that 3% of the vote in order for them to remain as a party.
I’m absolutely horrified that my former state of Ohio not only voted “yes” to defining marriage as ONLY between a man and a woman, but also voted to ban civil unions as well.
Ohio—YOU SUCK.
Just back from voting for Kerry/Edwards in Maui, Hawaii–a state that has apparently become a battleground state in the last couple of weeks…after not mattering at all for the last forever…probably b/c we have a “Republican” governor for the first time in like 40 years, even though when she was the mayor of Maui she was primarily Democrat. sheesh!
Both parties started running ads, Bush sent Dick out here and Kerry’s daughter was here with Gore and we had national media coverage.
Suppose it’s good for tourism?
Here’s a big ALOHA to all !
BTW, Jon…your Drunkenstein pic on dooce.com looks like Reagan from that angle…fun!
~lisa
Geez. My friend just called and asked if I cancelled our “girl’s day out” tomorrow because she said that she wouldn’t vote for Kerry in a million years and of course, I voted Kerry. I haven’t called her back yet. I thought I should just let her sit and stew for awhile.