Before I get into this, I have to say last night was the first election day I have spent not glued to the TV (I have no cable anymore.) I was anxious. I did go out and vote and it was sort of sad to see that no one was there. I did not wait at all. I had a book with me and never so much as opened it. No lines, no waiting, no excuses. I turned on the radio for a minute and found out that Marco Rubio is the next senator from Florida. I voted for him. Kendrick Meek never appealed to me and Charlie Crist is a backstabbing wishy-washy hypocrite, who in one campaign cycle went from calling himself a Reagan Conservative to criticizing the right wing.
It’s incredible how pervasive the news media is. I know this without watching news.
I will eventually find out if the Republicans took the house or the senate and I will find out who our next Governor is. All without breaking my promise to avoid news for a year.
On the ballot, there are always questions as to the retention of judges. I had no information to go on so I said no to each and every one of them. In every case where I was unsure, I voted against the incumbent. In cases where I was sure, I voted the same way. Incumbency is a corrupting influence. No one should hold an elected office for more than eight years. If eight years is long enough for a president, it’s long enough for city and county commissioners and more than enough for members of congress.
I was surprised to be handed a paper ballot. Wasn’t it just a few years ago that Broward County spent $25 million on those touch-screen voting machines? Then the county spent a bunch more money on fixing them, and then more money on printers. All so we can go back to pen and paper. This is why I hate government. If we ran our businesses the way these corrupt politicians ran government, we would all be living in the streets.
There is no respect for the people any more. These fools get elected and believe they are now above us. They believe they rule over us, rather than serve under us. They forget who the boss is. If Jesus Christ came not to rule, but to serve, where do these half-wits get their delusions? The arrogance is breathtaking in breadth and depth.
I would have liked to have seen something on the ballot calling for removal of all the cameras the county and cities have put on practically every street corner. I am not a red-light runner or a speeder, so it has nothing to do with tickets. It has to do with the slippery slope. These things always grow. First it’s about traffic and then it’s about privacy. Where does it end? When does government stop getting deeper and deeper into our lives?
See, I still have an opinion, even if I have decided to insulate myself from the news. I hope you voted. If not, shame on you. You missed the opportunity to exercise a right that so many in the world would die for, and so many who came before us did die for.
- Adolfo
http://ayearwithoutnews.blogspot.com
http://www.cakewhimsybyabdaliz.com
http://www.honeybeepartyrental.com
http://www.facebook.com/adolfojimenez1
http://www.twitter.com/adolfojimenez
Showing posts with label voting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label voting. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Day # 158 - Voting
Election day is tomorrow. Of course, with early voting and absentee voting (more on that later) it’s lost its magic. There is no election day any more, just the last day to vote before they count, or miscount, the ballots and decide who will have the privilege of robbing us for the next 2 to 4 years.
I have voted in every election since I was 18. I recognized the importance and the value of this right. My parents left communist Cuba a couple of years before I was born. I grew up listening to the stories, listening to my father and my uncles “discussing” the situation (to Cubans, discussing consists of yelling and waving your arms around in movements that seem wild and involuntary – yet somehow make sense.) I recognized early on that what happened to Cuba could happen to America. In fact, I believe it is. We’re larger, so the process is happening more slowly.
This is the first election cycle I have experienced without being versed on all the details of the candidates, the issues, the amendments and so forth. I could do what most people do and vote along party lines, but let’s be honest: there is essentially no difference between Democrats and Republicans any more. They’re all a bunch of neo-socialists trying to reach deeper into our pockets and into our lives. If you live in Broward County, you have seen the cameras. Just about every intersection is under surveillance. We are taxed left and right and the bastards in the city halls, the county halls and state capitals across this once-great country can’t wait to get their greedy little hooves on even more. I don’t need to read news to know this.
I also don’t need to read news to know that nothing will change unless changed by the people. Knowing that, even in my current condition, I am still more informed than the vast majority of the people, this is terrifying. People voted for “change” and my God, did we get it. All the promises and all the empty words are falling to the ground and shattering. We voted for rhetoric and speech-delivery skills rather than substance (I am not saying I wanted McCain – that weasel would have been as bad as the current weasel.) We voted for someone who promised he would fix our problems for us, rather than putting on our big-boy pants and looking after ourselves. The result: now we can’t look after ourselves because there are no jobs, no opportunity. The only thing that has truly changed is that there is no hope.
Early Voting: for so long, people have used time as an excuse not to vote. They didn’t want to stand in line for hours to affect an election that would affect them for the rest of their lives. Idiots. If you have ever not voted because of “time,” you are a complete moron and deserve to live in the socialist utopia the unholy trinity in Washington is trying to build for us. Learn the issues and vote. Even if you make a choice I don’t agree with, at least you made a choice and stood for something. At least you did your part. Early voting and absentee voting make it impossible to use the time excuse. If you don’t vote, but you plop your butt down in front of the TV or aimlessly surf the web, you are cheating yourself and your children. You are putting your future in the hands of others. You are declaring yourself a slave to the whims of others.
Whether you are the child of immigrants like me, or an immigrant (legal, the rest of you go home!) or if you’re family has been here since Plymouth Rock, you have not only the right to vote, but a duty to vote. America is the greatest country that there has ever been. It’s up to us to make sure it doesn’t become the greatest country there used to be.
Do it. Think about it, and do it.
- Adolfo
http://ayearwithoutnews.blogspot.com
http://www.cakewhimsybyabdaliz.com
http://www.honeybeepartyrental.com
http://www.facebook.com/adolfojimenez1
http://www.twitter.com/adolfojimenez
I have voted in every election since I was 18. I recognized the importance and the value of this right. My parents left communist Cuba a couple of years before I was born. I grew up listening to the stories, listening to my father and my uncles “discussing” the situation (to Cubans, discussing consists of yelling and waving your arms around in movements that seem wild and involuntary – yet somehow make sense.) I recognized early on that what happened to Cuba could happen to America. In fact, I believe it is. We’re larger, so the process is happening more slowly.
This is the first election cycle I have experienced without being versed on all the details of the candidates, the issues, the amendments and so forth. I could do what most people do and vote along party lines, but let’s be honest: there is essentially no difference between Democrats and Republicans any more. They’re all a bunch of neo-socialists trying to reach deeper into our pockets and into our lives. If you live in Broward County, you have seen the cameras. Just about every intersection is under surveillance. We are taxed left and right and the bastards in the city halls, the county halls and state capitals across this once-great country can’t wait to get their greedy little hooves on even more. I don’t need to read news to know this.
I also don’t need to read news to know that nothing will change unless changed by the people. Knowing that, even in my current condition, I am still more informed than the vast majority of the people, this is terrifying. People voted for “change” and my God, did we get it. All the promises and all the empty words are falling to the ground and shattering. We voted for rhetoric and speech-delivery skills rather than substance (I am not saying I wanted McCain – that weasel would have been as bad as the current weasel.) We voted for someone who promised he would fix our problems for us, rather than putting on our big-boy pants and looking after ourselves. The result: now we can’t look after ourselves because there are no jobs, no opportunity. The only thing that has truly changed is that there is no hope.
Early Voting: for so long, people have used time as an excuse not to vote. They didn’t want to stand in line for hours to affect an election that would affect them for the rest of their lives. Idiots. If you have ever not voted because of “time,” you are a complete moron and deserve to live in the socialist utopia the unholy trinity in Washington is trying to build for us. Learn the issues and vote. Even if you make a choice I don’t agree with, at least you made a choice and stood for something. At least you did your part. Early voting and absentee voting make it impossible to use the time excuse. If you don’t vote, but you plop your butt down in front of the TV or aimlessly surf the web, you are cheating yourself and your children. You are putting your future in the hands of others. You are declaring yourself a slave to the whims of others.
Whether you are the child of immigrants like me, or an immigrant (legal, the rest of you go home!) or if you’re family has been here since Plymouth Rock, you have not only the right to vote, but a duty to vote. America is the greatest country that there has ever been. It’s up to us to make sure it doesn’t become the greatest country there used to be.
Do it. Think about it, and do it.
- Adolfo
http://ayearwithoutnews.blogspot.com
http://www.cakewhimsybyabdaliz.com
http://www.honeybeepartyrental.com
http://www.facebook.com/adolfojimenez1
http://www.twitter.com/adolfojimenez
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