Primary Day Ruminations…
Today I rolled out to vote for the umpteenth time since the first time I voted-in June 1977. I was not yet 18, but Virginia law says if you are old enough to vote in the general, you can vote in the primary to determine the candidates for the general.
I vote at the worst physical plant polling place in Northern Virginia. The Burke Commons CC has too little parking and is too small a building for a small turnout election…it is vastly overwhelmed by a large one. The election day officials are wonderful and very nice…but the building-Oy!
There was a small line for the GOP primary-and was comprised of bald, white guys. I thought, “Ah, my people”.
The ballot depressed me…anyone who qualified for the race was on the ballot, even if they have dropped out. So many reasonable candidates, and we are left with what we are left with. Fortunately, there was one left I in the race I could vote for and not as a tool to “vote against” someone else.
It has been said GOP dissatisfaction might catapult Mitt Romney into the race. Bad idea. There has never been a candidate who successfully jumped into the race midway to the convention and been successful. Scranton tried it against Goldwater in 1964, Reagan tried it v. Nixon in 1968, Jerry Brown and others against Carter in 1976. RFK and HHH jumped in after LBJ dropped, so that was a little different. It just doesn’t wash. If Romney really has a mind to do this, his best shot is to wait and see if there is a deadlocked convention, then offer his name.
I signed Gerry Connolly’s petition to get on the ballot. I agree with little of what he does, and whenever I see him I think he looks like an escapee from Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. But if he wants to run, God Bless Him. Takes a lot to be willing to put your name on the ballot and accept the slings and arrows of an outrageous public.
If you live in any state having a primary today, please take the time to vote. The suffrage is a precious thing, earned at a terrible cost by so many over the years. Vote for someone, vote against someone, or write someone in. But vote. Be part of the solution, and not the problem.
Renaissance Ruminations 