Election day…Sorry M, I win (JLH)

I voted!  It was my first time at the polls, having finally become an official citizen of the commonwealth (MA) this year.

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Since I don’t drive, I felt no rush to convert my New York driver’s license when I moved here for residency, but then I noticed that 10 years had passed and my dreams of a 2 bedroom, west side condo in a doorman building overlooking central park were never going to happen.

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Although I find American politics and the corresponding media (not news) coverage entertaining, I doubt that my vote has much impact on me. I live a privileged existence with a nice salary, supportive family and friends, good health care coverage, and I’m too old and (my nephew is too young) to be sent to war.  Massachusetts  residents are extraordinarily liberal on social issues, so I feel like issues of homelessness, substance addition, etc. will be debated and considered whoever is in power.

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I enjoyed the experience of this election nonetheless. Problems with the local economy, housing prices, school reform, big dig and national issues (the war) have harmonized the voices of Massachusetts into a chorus singing for change; and the democratic victory was so massive that the feeling at the poles was one of a celebrating community rather than of a mob marching on the statehouse.

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The last election I actually cared about was in 1980. I was in 7th or 8th grade and revered Jimmy Carter as the only honest voice in Washington; a man demonized by gas guzzling, slogan slinging, blame mongers. Looking back at the narrow victory against Ford and his team’s brashly arrogant approach to politics and legislation, I realize this highly intelligent giant hearted man had no place in Washington.   Regan turned out to be an excellent president (Iran Contra … and his successors aside).

It was the beginning of the PC age and I had organized my geeky friends to set up our junior high computer lab (Radio shack TRS-80s) for outcome predictions based on exit polls. We planned to stay up into the night entering the numbers from the TV networks, but it was a short depressing evening.

Comments

[MD]

J - this republican adores you for so many reasons....I am oddly, er, subdued, for me. I feel house cleaning and putting-the-fear-of-voters into politicians is always good. AS a purpurted small government conservative, for lack of a better term, I can only approve of house cleaning and throw the bums out. The republicans forgot their principles, and in so doing, were complacent and loss. Congratulations to you and your kind and here is to 2008. Time to regroup, my republican friends.

*I do worry about Iraq. That's the sticker for me. I worry a precipitious pull out will harm a great many innocent people.

**My father is one of the few people I know who still thinks both Carter and Reagan were good presidents. He has voted for the winner in every election since he moved to this country (presidential elections, that is). Interesting.

[MD]

Uh, I'll clean up the massive spelling errors at a later date. It must be the post election sadness....

[MD]

PS: there is no draft. No-one is being 'sent'; it is an all volunteer army. Hmmm, time to link to some milblogs.....

[Tatyana]

MD, I am really trying. Really, really trying to understand your reasons for "adoring" your co-blogger so much.

Every sentence in this post cries BS to heavens.

[JLH]

I thought that BS and blog space were the same thing.

Tatyana, I'm just playing here. I leave the serious blogging for M.

[MD]

Tatyana, I guess because I know him in person and not just virtually. I don't agree with him about Iraq and many other things, but I never want to be the kind of person who only has friends or acquaintances who are ideologically 'pure'. Ugh, it's one of the reasons I drifted rightward. I welcomed the intellectual cacaphony, or rather, the tendency to welcome someone who differed in some particulars as long as the general philosophy was conservative. I hate ideological purges and would hate to see the right do what the left can do (I mean, the left as in the Kos blogosphere which is a microcosm of a microcosm, despite high hit numbers). C'mon, surely you have a lefty friend that you love despite your differences? Don't worry, I haven't changed my basic conservative ideology; not one bit.

[T]

I have leftie friends, I even have stounch socialist mother (who is the sole exception in my circle of acquaintances - and she's here to stay, god willing), but no friend of Jimmuh Carter could ever be also my friend. You might say the man is a deal-breaker.

[T]

No, it's not exactly true. I don't have leftie friends. I can find any amount of common ground with people, be it in gastronomy, knitting, 18 cent. French belle lettres, shoes, Italian disco and so on - but as soon as the person starts praising government regulation, gun control, CNN, Palestinian Authority, etc - he/she gets transfered from "friends" to mere asquaintances, in best of cases. I just can't trust him/her anymore.

This is not to say I request 100% agreement on all issues from my friends, but there are some basic principles that's not negotiable. You'd say - but you're too demanding, you can't have many friends this way: this is my purpose, actually. I don't have many friends, but those who are - I'll trust them with murder evidence.

[SFG]

Wandered in from the blowhards blog, interesting to read a blog by a doctor (and a pathologist of all things)...

I have conservative friends. It is true there seems to be a number of issues that are non-negotiable among hardcore lefties who call themselves lefties and are politically active and consider that an important part of their identity. But if you talk to the large number of ordinary people in liberal areas like the Northeast who simply lean liberal, there's actually quite a bit of dissent; many people I know feel immigration should be cut down, for example, or are pretty lax on gun control.

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