One voter's story

I haven't pulled the lever in a while, and moving in recently complicated things. I registered with the New Jersey DMV when I changed my address a few months ago.

Of course, my name wasn't there (DMV efficiency). I needed a provisional ballot. The campaign worker rang out with it, actually - "This man has got to vote!" It was as if John Wayne rolled up on a horse, in black and white, while we all hummed "the Battle Hymn of the Republic." I absolutely loved it.

So I filled out my ballot (which hopefully will count) and was on my way, thanks to the helpful folks in New Brunswick, NJ. Good experience.

And for whom did I vote? You can probably guess by now. I really can't stomach being used, and the distinguished senator from Massachusetts has been trying it for months, now. George Bush, remember, is supposed to be the theocrat, the throat-crammer, the man forcing women to have babies by gunpoint (in more than one country). Yet John Kerry is the one equating a vote for him as a vote for God:

"As the scripture teaches us, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, and they will soar on wings like eagles, and they will run and not grow weary, and they will walk and not grow faint," Kerry said, whipping up cheers from the congregation.
"That's what we are going to do over these next two days and once we have done that job, for the next four years we are going to work out what we need to do to heal the wounds of this country, to be one America," Kerry said.
"We are going to get this done, let's make it happen, let's walk in the footsteps of the Lord."

Apparently, none of these steps carry him any closer to any sort of opposition to untrammeled abortion on demand; the great Christian feels no mandate to correct (or even curtail) one of the grave injustices of our day. Nor does he seem especially happy that millions of people in Afghanistan and Iraq now breathe free air.

Ah, yes, the war. "Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time," as we've heard, and yet he's recently been pledging to finish the job, not cut and run. I've never before heard someone vow to complete a terrible mistake.

In this regard, the recent Osama-rama (if it is, indeed, he, as I've questioned below) claimed that if we would only let him alone, he'd let us alone. Of course, that's not how it worked first time around - we did next-to-nothing in reply to several years of terrorist atrocities, leading him to direct the attacks on Washington and New York. This leads me to assume that the Faux bin Laden is following the hoary maxim: "Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggy' until you find a stick."

I note that with our current approach, he has no sticks and is reduced to groveling on Al Jazeera, possibly by proxy. The boys in post-production could have at least Photoshopped the poor guy a current edition of the Times. (Savor the irony of Falsama brandishing the discredited missing weapons story whilst moaning "No más" in Arabic.)

Through it all, I'm content. My long-time theory is that politics is only important in the impact it has on people. Voter apathy isn't always a bad thing; if the average joe can say, "Heck with this, I've got important things to do," it means that he's free to live his life unhindered (OK, mildly hindered) by the machinery of state. This one is more important, and accordingly, turnout is higher. And despite the rancor of things I find that friends of opposite voting trends are still my friends today, and will be tomorrow. We have more important things in common than party.