Hey… Does This Mean What I Think It Does?

3rd day in a row of posting… could it mean that I’m attempting to do NaBloPoMo? 

I guess it does… lucky you, huh, dear reader? Lucky you, indeed…

Today’s topic: VOTING in Hoboken.  What else?

I am proud to say that I cast my vote this morning in this “election of our lifetime.”  My personal feeling is that I voted for the lesser (in MY mind) of two evils.  I felt both candidates had a handful of reasons to vote for them, and each also had many things that cancelled those reasons out.  Like for example, the fact that I’m not a socialist… but on the other hand, I’m also not a fool.  So there you have it… so it went as I tried to wrestle with my decision.

I cast my vote for the one that seemed least damaging to my life personally (selfish, I know.)  While I’m not going to pledge my facebook status to “getting out the vote” for any particular candidate today, I’ll just say that I don’t get the whole Obama as second coming thing… on the other hand, nor do I get how the hell my parents (traditional Republicans of the propaganda-ish sort) can be “energized” by Sarah Fucking Palin. I think it is utterly ridiculous that Obama outspent McCain as he did — with the money he spent on his infomercial alone, I can think of a whole lotta subprime mortgage consumers on “main street’ (cough, cough) he could have bailed out.  And McCain — for fuck’s sake don’t get me started on the whole Maverick thing. 

Anyway.  I did cast my vote… I tried my best to display civic pride in our right to elect our leaders — I even tied an American flag bandana on Mutt as I dragged him along.  (Why not?  Morning constitution and exercising my constitutional right can be two birds killed with one stone.) 

First stop, Hoboken High School — the polling place for my current address.  Not. On. List.  Feeble and inefficient — yet friendly, at least — poll staffer told me I could fill out a provisional ballot, or go to the other polling place where I’d last been registered.  My fault for not filing change of address.  Not trusting that my provisional ballot would be properly handled by the looks of the staffers, I left, untying Mutt from his parking meter post outside and walked over the St. Peter and Paul’s parish center.

And there, I was forced to stand in line behind THAT voter.  The one who waxes poetic (and loud) the entire time about democracy in action… “I vote in EVERY election”… “I believe everyone should vote, even if I don’t agree with them”… “I am a firm believer that every vote counts”… “I believe we all matter in our system and that voting is a right that everyone should exercise”… on and on, on and on.  Anytime a person in line asked a staffer a question, this know-it-all jumped in to answer — from the back of the line, she’d yell out her advice to someone asking a question in the front.  She was self-righteous, annoying and directing her passion at the wrong crowd.  Weren’t we all standing in line to vote, after all?  Her assertions — while valid and certainly patriotic — were just annoying at 7am, you know what I mean?  Hey lady — I’m in line… no need to “get out my vote”, so STFU!

A kindly staffer was charmed by Mutt’s “kerchief” — and when he saw me tying him outside he said, “Oh, you can bring him in!”  So I did, much to the chagrin of some voters, and much to the delight of others.  He trotted right to the machine with me — proud to be an American (with the neckwear to prove it), in fact, and laughter behind us ensured as people saw two human and four canine feet peeking out from the curtain, which was rustling back and forth caught in the perpetual wag of Mutt’s patriotic tail.  I like to think this akin to people taking their kids to the polls… and important civic lesson for him to observe.

I was looking forward to my free Starbucks coffee… and there wasn’t even a line when I went.  Coffee in one hand, leash in the other, I could start my post-vote walk back home and bask in the special American pride that only comes with voting for a candidate you don’t believe in just to ensure you do your part to prevent the other one from getting anywhere near the oval office.

Overall, it’s been a long, long road and I’m glad that it’s going to be over.  And I’ll deal with the outcome either way… and just hold out hope that better options are before me in four years time.