People Like Me

I received a phone call the other day from a political organization that I have given money to in the past. I have neglected to continue that practice for that last year or two. Anyhow, they gave me their speech and wanted me to donate yet again. Never mind the fact that they would save the amount I am not giving them if they stopped sending me mailers and calling me, I let the man on the other end of the phone know that I would not be donating and gave him a brief synopsis why. I would explain, but it would go in a different direction than the point of this post.

He continued to try and convince me. He attempted to show me that my logic was faulty. After I continued to explain myself in more detail, the discussion got a bit more animated. First of all, donating money to politics tends to have much more behind the personal motivation than logic. In a representative government, self-interest will always play at least some part. Therefore, yelling at me is not likely to convince me to donate money nor is attempting to paint me as ignorant. The part of our conversation worth posting about, however, is when the man on the phone let me know that the situation we find ourselves in with our Congress and with what isn't getting done is not the fault of those in Congress (particularly those no longer in the majority according to his explanation). It is my fault, or more precisely, it is because of people like me. That is right friends. The Republicans are no longer in the majority not because their constituents for various reasons voted them out of majority but because of people like me. Issues that are important to me are not being acted on, have not been acted on in over a decade and won't be acted upon not because of the inability of our elected officials to act or to represent but because of people like me.

Next time you feel all heated up and think to write your Congressman/woman or Senator. Stop and address that letter to me. After all, it isn't their fault. It is the fault of people like me. I am sure this is as much news to you as it was to me, so I thought I better make sure you all know where the fault truly lies.

Good grief!

Potomac Primaries

Today is Potomac Primary day. That consists of Washington D.C., Virginia and Maryland. I feel like I have been waiting to vote for a long time even though it really hasn't been that long. My candidate got out of the race, and those candidates I would call a second choice are gone as well. Really, the candidates left are varying degrees of cringe inducing for me. I thought about what I was going to do. Virginia is an open primary, so I could vote in either party's primary. I tossed out the idea of voting/meddling in the Democratic primary, because I am unlikely to vote Democrat in November. (I haven't ruled it out though) To vote/meddle in that primary would be to make a hypocrite of myself as I have previously criticized that exact behaviour. Initially, I was just going to vote for my guy even though he is out of the race. It would be making a point of some kind I thought. Then this weekend happened, and I thought a lot about what I wanted to accomplish.

In the end, I figured anything I was going to do was going to amount to a protest vote of some kind. I chose to vote for John McCain, the remaining candidate I have the fewest gripes with. However, I didn't vote for John McCain so much as I chose to vote against Mike Huckabee. The faster he is finished with this campaign, the better for America in my opinion, and voting for McCain is the more effective way of achieving that result. Trent mentioned that I might regret this vote if Huckabee is the VP candidate for McCain. I decided that would not be the case. I would simply have the opportunity to vote in protest again in November. I probably sound bitter. Perhaps I am a bit. For now, I have voted in protest. Now I am going to indulge in some angry and sad music while completing chores. Besides, I e-mailed in my quandry and made the Corner at National Review. That's got to be worth something as far as getting my opinion out.

Super Tuesday

It is Super Tuesday. This doesn't affect me as Virginia doesn't vote until next Tuesday (Feb. 12). For all of you this does affect though (all of you in California, Utah and Colorado for example) go out and vote in the primaries if you can. It doesn't matter if we don't like the same candidate or even vote for the same party. The best chance of a nationally vetted candidate is for as many Americans to vote as possible. I also don't deny that I want to be able to vote for my guy next week. For some of you that may mean putting on cross-country skis, but get out and vote.