For Love of Country: Seven Thoughts on the Election

Vote for "Love of Country"

I just voted by filling out my absentee ballot for this year's election.  Here are seven things that I thought about as I voted this year:

1. Candidates that don't bother to fill out a candidate statement shouldn't bother to expect my vote.  Honestly, how am I supposed to know who you are or what you stand for if you don't bother to tell me yourself.  This mostly applies to the local elections where I have no idea what the holder of the office is supposed to do (i.e. water district candidates or board members for the local community college district--why are there at least 7 of them?  Do we really need that many when I don't have any idea what the job does?).


2. I'm overloaded with the deluge of commercials about California's various propositions.  What I really want is a gladiator-style debate where I can play each side's commercials to the other side and ask them if the claims are really true.  Barring that, I'd love to put them under oath and subject them to a little cross-examination about their claims.  Seems like I could save everybody a whole lot of money.


3. I actually try to read the language of some of these ballot proposals.  It's exhausting.  Clearly the whole "plain English" movement sweeping the legal profession has not reached whoever is writing these propositions.  Maybe they want us to be confused.  In the absence of such clarity, I often look to see what organizations support or oppose the initiative.  Many times, I will vote against the organization supporting the ballot measure.



Would you support Prop 32?

4. I'm sick of career politicians who skip from one office to another and make a living by eating out of the public trough.  I almost voted for one such politician who was drummed out of office under the cloud of scandal and is now shamelessly running for another office.  They should have put an asterisk next to his name in my ballot!  Thank you Google for allowing me to confirm my suspicions.


5. Who are these people that run for office?  Our political system seems so dysfunctional, I can't imagine who would volunteer for the abuse that comes with running for office.  I worry that this limits the pool of decent men and women who would be candidates and it scares me a little.


6. Everyone talks about encouraging people to get out there and vote.  Sometimes that bothers me when I see people that have taken no steps to educate themselves on the issues and who clearly have no idea what is going on.  Why should their vote cancel out mine?  Shouldn't we encourage people to get educated first and then vote?  Is that so un-American?


7. I'm really sick of all the polls in the Presidential race.  I can't make heads or tails of them.  I have a strong suspicion that someone is lying (whether the pollsters or the polls or the news media).  Does anyone really believe that this race should be as close as every poll seems to claim that it is?

This just looks like gibberish to me!