Today is election day

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elections, politics, postaday2014, vote

Today my husband and I exercised our right to vote. I have to say with a heavy heart that both of my children decided not to exercise their right to participate. Our daughter forgot to register for an absentee ballot and according to my husband when he spoke to her today, she wouldn’t have voted anyway. I had a passionate argument with my son today and it didn’t sway his decision at all. I brought up several facts such as the fact that people marched, protested and died for the right to vote and even today there are several states in our union who are purposefully putting roadblocks in place to deny the disenfranchised the right to vote. Texas requires a specific voter i.d to vote and there are very limited places to get one, some people have to travel over two hours to get that specific i.d. These types of restrictive i.d regulations makes it onerous to vote and it is done to dissuade certain demographic groups and they are primarily made up of the minority populations.

He argued that his vote doesn’t matter, I countered that au contraire it did. There are historical outcomes that prove him incorrect; some have been quite recent. All of this to no avail, he decided to be apathetic to the voting process. He did say that his mood may not be permanent, he could change next election year. That did little to cheer me up, I was sad that my arguments didn’t move him whatsoever and I know that my daughter would have been similarly unfazed.

We don’t have much power in this country and our vote is one of the last things that we have left to make our voice heard and leave an imprint of our decision as to which way our country should be governed and to know that I have two who don’t care and feel disassociated with their responsibilities makes me sad.

My civic duty done

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campaigns, civic duty, elections, postaday2012, responsibility

Today being the first Tuesday of November means that it is election day. I was joined by the baby boy and we exercised our civic duty by voting not only for the next President but also for congressional members and four ballot questions; two of which were simply referendums. The four questions were quite serious. The two that would become law were; one involving physician assisted suicide for the terminally ill, and the other question was for legalizing medical marijuana. The other two questions that were meant to take the pulse of the electorate were just as serious; one was voting for a constitutional amendment that would explicitly state that corporations are not people and they do not have the right to free speech as do actual people and the second question was asking us, the electorate, if we wanted the wealthy to be taxed a bit more, cut defense spending so that we can preserve Medicare, social security and invest in education and infrastructure.

My baby boy and I both voted in sync, we found out when we left after comparing notes. We were both happy to be voting for our President, who we both admire very much. A Romney presidency is just too scary to contemplate because of his serious belief in supply-side economics, cut taxes and supposedly that will grow an economy. Unfortunately for us, we tried that during the long Bush years and it does not work. He also wants to cut and gut all social insurance programs and anything that is not military. Effectively I am left to think that he wants a military state and that is it.

No thank you, the baby boy and I put our two cents in and I hope that we are happy with the outcome tomorrow.

The annoyance of political ads during election season

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commercials, elections, government, political ads, postaday2012, TiVo

We are now about six weeks away from our presidential election and congressional elections. It is not just the Fall season that reminds you of the upcoming big decision but the non-stop avalanche of political ads that have started appearing on almost every single channel. I think that because of commercials in general and especially now during political ad season, TiVo is the best invention known to man. TiVo by far has out-shown the VCR on many different levels by allowing you to watch the show while it is being recorded so when you get a little bit of time-lapse you can actually watch it and fast forward during commercials. Another way it is superior is that while TiVo is recording two shows simultaneously you can watch a show that has been recorded previously without interfering with your recording schedule. Brilliant I tell you.

I am protesting the political ads because I get all of my news and information on-line. I despise watching news programs because the pundits absolutely never ever ask hard questions and they all ask the same questions regardless which program you are watching. They all receive the same corporate memo so in essence if you watch one show, you have effectively watched all the others.

I’m frustrated because I just wish the elections were over now, instead of worrying that Romney might win which would be a big blow to the middle class and the less fortunate. Most everyone agrees that this election is the most important election of our lifetime. That might be a tad hyperbolic but President Obama did state in his convention speech that this election is a clear choice between two visions of government and its role in people’s lives.

My view is that unlike Ronald Reagan who stated, famously by the way, “Government isn’t the solution to our problems, government is our problem”.

His statement is very simplistic and it creates an entity deemed to be separate from society as a whole and that is purely illogical. Our government as envisioned by the founding fathers was a government for the people, of the people and by the people. We are our government and we shouldn’t think of it as some bad institution trying to control our lives, Abraham Lincoln had a few important ideas on the merit of our government, “government is essential to do and provide for the people those things that they are unable to do for themselves but can do together as a society”.

That’s it for me today. I will get off my soap box and leave it at that.