Pre-Election Jitters

[vovat]

I get annoyed when people claim that race isn't going to be a factor in the presidential election. I KNOW race is a factor, because I've heard people say, sometimes explicitly and other times in thinly veiled code, that they don't like and/or trust Obama simply because he's black. It certainly SHOULDN'T be a factor, and I'm sure it isn't for many people, but claiming that it won't be at all is demonstrating ignorance (and probably willful ignorance) that racism is still alive and well in this country. I really hope that people can overcome their racism enough to elect Obama, but I don't think it's a guarantee.

One thing I have to wonder is how many people actually fall for the weird campaign techniques that the media keep talking about. I mean, I've heard that there really wasn't a significant movement of Hillary Clinton supporters to Palin, but you certainly wouldn't have thought that from watching television around that time. And now there's McCain telling people at his rallies that they're ALL Joe the Plumber, and having them define themselves as "[Name] the [Occupation]." But is this actually a big movement in the country, or is it really only the people who attend McCain rallies who buy into it? I know I don't want to be compared to Joe the Plumber. And what also gets me is how the McCain campaign is trying to sell being ordinary as a positive thing. You know, that's not the world I live in. It's always been my thought that everyone wants to be EXTRAordinary, and we all consider ourselves to be better and smarter than average. But now it's apparently a great thing to be average, and "Joe Six-Pack" and "hockey mom" are compliments. Come on, the middle of the road is not where anyone WANTS to be. It's where they end up when they've given up all hope, and don't really mind if they get flattened by a gas-guzzling SUV. I'm a notorious pessimist, and I haven't resigned myself to a life of ordinary obscurity, so I have to wonder just how bleak things are for the people who have. The funny thing is that McCain's poster boy for ordinariness ISN'T settling for an average life, but rather hiring a publicist, trying to get a recording contract, and even contemplating a run for Congress. And if McCain is still trying to sell Joe the Plumber as a typical hard-working American, well, I doubt the guy is fixing all that many sinks while on the campaign trail with Johnny B. Goode and Sally Six-Pack. I'm just saying, is all.

Incidentally, Joe's actual last name is Wurzelbacher, which I assume means that he's from a proud line of manufacturers of circus organs.

Another election I'm concerned about is one in which I can't vote, because it's in California. After the judiciary system decided that gay marriage was legal, some genius decided to let the public vote on it. I say there are some issues too important to be decided by the masses. I learned in my high school government class that our system isn't supposed to be based simply on majority rule, but rather on majority rule WITH a focus on minority rights. I mean, do you think slavery or segregation would have ended if it had all been up to the voters? So why should the majority be able to choose whether or not certain people can get married?

Comments

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I went to vote on Halloween because I just have this awful feeling it won't matter by the 4th.

That's certainly possible. I know I've voted by absentee ballot and it hasn't counted. I mean, that was apparently because they'd determined it was impossible for the other guy to win the state (and it went for the candidate I voted for anyway), but it still makes the process seem rather futile. I'm voting on the actual day this year, though. Let's hope they count it.

People want to believe that being ordinary is somehow better than being elite, because many people have long since stopped even trying to be special.

I think it's disturbing that a fair number of people seem to be convinced that everyone's either "ordinary" or "elite." Whatever happened to everyone being special WITHOUT having to be convinced they're better than anyone else?

And listen to some ivy league... smart guy, as if he is better than I am?

With this in mind, it's pretty absurd that the candidates these people go for are often ALSO Ivy League graduates. But I guess they're the lesser of two evils because they didn't get very good grades at those institutions.

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

What I did was advanced voting, not absentee. In Georgia, we've been able to absentee vote for the last 45 days, advance vote for the last week. Voting goes fairly smoothly here, and I normally vote in such a small precinct that I don't think there will be any crowd-related problems on Tues. No, my superstition stems from the fear of something happening to Obama. My vote in this red state probably won't end up counting, but we'll see.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think they have advanced voting in New Jersey as well, but I didn't know about it until it was really too late to take advantage of it. I'm pretty sure they don't have it at all in Pennsylvania, where I used to live.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my mom's the, uh, the person in charge of running the poll place in my hometown, and she was just saying how she can't imagine having to do voting for days in a row! Apparently PA works just fine without advanced voting. But seriously, have you seen the pictures of people LINED UP OUTSIDE to vote DAYS AHEAD OF TIME? Do those places have less polling places than other places? One-day voting would be HORRENDOUS if there are lines like that DAYS AHEAD OF TIME!