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As always, I exercise my right to cast a secret ballot on Election Day by being willing to admit who I vote for. *G* Or in this case, as it has been for quite a long number of years, who I didn't vote for. For example, this time I voted Democrat or Independent where possible. I have no great love of Democrats, but I just can't yet take the large majority of Republicans seriously. They haven't distanced themselves from the extremist and religious element that's been lurking within the party for the past few decades, which flowered into power in the late 90s, and I'm not at all convinced the Teabaggers are a separate movement from the GOP.
Conversely, however, if the Republicans re-take the House, I'm not going to be fatalistic about it. The last couple of years I've tried to be more moderate politically, mainly because it's less stressful than ranting all the time. Also,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
crevette has tried to convince me to exercise fairness. From a purely selfish POV, I have no confidence in the Republicans elected to make my life better - and I sort of suspect they'll do all they can to treat me (and anyone else who isn't a middle-aged white male) like an errant 12-year-old, again - but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. A large part of this is because the Democrats have sort of crapped and squandered their chance to change things the past four years, choosing instead to try to appeal to the GOP, which has not had compromise in its collective heart for twenty years or more. As a kid I remember both parties regularly splitting their vote on this piece of legislation or that - now, it seems they vote in reaction to each other instead of to the legislation at hand. But, when the electorate TELLS you they want out of the war, they want better health care options, more jobs - LISTEN. (The one lesson I would urge the Democrats to learn from Bush/Cheney: When you get a mandate from the voters, USE IT FOR GODSAKE.) That, and Obama insists on staying in Afghanistan despite millennia of history suggesting the wisdom of avoiding the place - dude, if we wanted to stay at war, we could've elected Grandpa Clueless and Caribou Barbie.
Conversely, however, if the Republicans re-take the House, I'm not going to be fatalistic about it. The last couple of years I've tried to be more moderate politically, mainly because it's less stressful than ranting all the time. Also,
crevette has tried to convince me to exercise fairness. From a purely selfish POV, I have no confidence in the Republicans elected to make my life better - and I sort of suspect they'll do all they can to treat me (and anyone else who isn't a middle-aged white male) like an errant 12-year-old, again - but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. A large part of this is because the Democrats have sort of crapped and squandered their chance to change things the past four years, choosing instead to try to appeal to the GOP, which has not had compromise in its collective heart for twenty years or more. As a kid I remember both parties regularly splitting their vote on this piece of legislation or that - now, it seems they vote in reaction to each other instead of to the legislation at hand. But, when the electorate TELLS you they want out of the war, they want better health care options, more jobs - LISTEN. (The one lesson I would urge the Democrats to learn from Bush/Cheney: When you get a mandate from the voters, USE IT FOR GODSAKE.) That, and Obama insists on staying in Afghanistan despite millennia of history suggesting the wisdom of avoiding the place - dude, if we wanted to stay at war, we could've elected Grandpa Clueless and Caribou Barbie.
