Good crowd — and even in Republicanville, I saw most of the voters taking the time to cast individual votes in all the myriad races on the ballot. No straight ticket voting. It’s good to see people voting for the candidate, not blindly supporting the party (especially in Republicanville).
More later.
We voted absentee since they’ve had so many issues with the Diebold machines here in MD. Jamison is actually working as a poll watcher today.
I admire your enthusiasm, and child-like optimism.
But I heartily disagree with you.
The very reason we have so-called “straight ticket” voting is because the Democratic party is AS corrupt as the Republican Party. It is the same reason that there were exactly ZERO candidates on Alabama’s ballot from non-traditional, so-called “third” parties. Not a single Libertarian, Green, or even unaffiliated “Independent” was on the ballot. Because the democrats and republicans have always conspired to strangle any real choice.
Regardless of how people phrase it, “vote my concience,” “vote for the candidate,” etc, anyone who affiliates with one of the main parties does so ONLY to get the vote, NOT because they are idealistic or in any real way on the side of democracy. They affiliate because they are part of the problem with our democracy, regardless of how hard the talking heads try to spin them as being part of some political solution.
People who ACTUALLY vote independent … for Loretta Nall, for the Jesse Venturas and Lyndon LaRouches in their day, and EVEN for Joe Lieberman; THOSE voters are the only ones who can truthfully say that they’ve voted their conscience.
Any vote for any democrat or republican is just a vote to keep us focused on dirty tricks, gerrymandering, influence-peddling, and generally more of the same. The only independent vote is a vote for an independent.
Lane
If voting for Joe Liberman is voting one’s conscience, I do not have one. A vote for Lieberman is the ultimate vote for continuing the professional political ruling class, albeit with a greater twist toward the Bush world view.
Lyndon LaRouche? Excuse me while I wipe the spit off my screen. You can’t be serious.
Lane, if you’d read a little farther before commenting, you would have noticed that I voted for Loretta Nall. I know her, and I think she’s a legitimate candidate who actually has positions on issues that affect Alabama. But for the most part, people who want to serve in public office do choose to affiliate themselves with one of the two major political parties. Vote for kooks or jokes like LaRouche or Ventura, and one of two things happens: you lose big, or by some quirk of fate or name recognition you win and wackiness ensues.
Loretta has done an excellent job spotlighting the ridiculous ballot access laws in Alabama, and I’d love to see them change. But saying that any candidate who aligns with a major party is inherently corrupt is just pointless hyperbole.
Was there an icestorm in Alabama I haven’t heard about. Seems like an awful lot of you are falling and hitting your heads. Especially the LaRouche guy. I bet you a million dollars he has the following bumper stickers on his car: “Green Peace”, “Vote for Nader”, & “Free Leonard Peltier”.