McCain Palin

Today was the first time I saw a positive tv ad done by the McCain/Palin campaign. McCain did the speaking, and I thought he looked really sincere. Ugh! If only he hadn’t picked Palin as his running mate- then this would not be a hard decision for me.

If someone had asked me two months ago if there was anything McCain could do that would make me not vote for him, short of murder and racial epithets, I would have said an emphatic NO. That was before. I had no idea, I had no inkling that he would pick a right wing fanatic as his running mate. I guess I assumed that his advisers were smart. He would have been better off picking Hillary Clinton as his running mate. I would even like a McCain Biden ticket.

But no, the fates are conspiring against me, forcing me to evaluate everything I think I know or knew about our government. The very fact that I am even considering voting for a Democrat is astounding, shocking. I am a Republican, damnit! Well, that’s not entirely true, I am a strict constructionist, but that doesn’t mean to much these days, unless you are a judge.

I always held the belief that even if you didn’t like the person your party nominated, you still voted the Party. The elected official is always going to be controlled by those who put him into power, so even if you hated him, it didn’t matter. My slogan was “Vote the Party, Not the Man!” Obviously I am rethinking that notion- which is really what this whole election is about. Am I still a Republican? If so, no matter what crazy lady is VP, I should vote for the Republicans. Did I all of a sudden become a Democrat? I don’t think I did, but I also don’t think I’m still part of the GOP.

I’m in the worst place, the place all government majors hate, THE MIDDLE. I am now a Joe Lieberman, no party to call my own. Too bad we can’t fast forward to the day after the election.

Side Note— McCain Palin, as a name for someone, sounds kinda cool. Back in my GOP heyday, I definitely would have names my dog that!

John McCain or Barack Obama

I love voting! I registered to vote 2 months before my 18th birthday, just so all the paperwork would go through in time for my first election. The first election in which I voted in was 1999, and it was on a day that I had to cheer in a boys varsity basketball game. So I wore my cheerleading outfit to the poll, voted, got my sticker, and left. I proceeded to wear this sticker throughout the game- I was SO proud! It was my civic duty to vote and I was damn proud of exercising this right, which had it been 80 years earlier, I wouldn’t have been able to do.

Since then, I have never missed any election, primary, ect. Whenever I can vote, I vote, proudly. Each time, the anticipation never abates. In college I even went home to vote, 1 hour away, because I did NOT want to vote absentee, my vote was going to count.

Things have changed this election- I don’t want to vote. I am dreading having to make this decision. I don’t have the option not to vote, it’s not in my DNA, so I have to do it. Each day, as new things come out in the press, I am more and more wishing I wasn’t registered, then it wouldn’t be a problem. But I know one day my kid is going to ask me who I voted for, and not voting is going to sound much worse than voting for (insert candidate). I feel pressure this election, I live in a swing state for the first time in 50 years, my vote might actually mean something.

Now I’m trying to look past the rhetoric, so I can make the right choice. It’s stressful and I’m so conflicted.