Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Exasperation Day

Yesterday I was talking with a co-worker who told me that she never voted in the primaries... only in the general elections... because all they do in the primary is choose who will run in November. She was serious. I tried to get through to her that this was exactly the reason the primaries were so important. The primaries are where change happens!
The institutional Democrats won again in California. The opportunity for change has passed. Angelides apparently won by less than five percentage points... Garamendi and Brown (Brown? Governor Moonbeam for Attorney General?) by wider margins.
All that's left for November is to once again choose between the lesser of two evils.
No... I need to start looking at third party slates.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Preliminary news reports that I've read indicate less than 30% of registered voters actually voted in this Primary. I share your exasperation at the reasons people give for not participating in this process.

Immigrants I've spoken with have more respect for our democratic process than many of our own native born residents who also rale against immigrants.

I'm really losing faith in the American people to sustain this hard fought for Republic. I think of the freedom WWII warriors died and were maimed for life to protect, not only our right, but our obligation to vote.

Probably the most important elections begin at the local level, including school boards, council persons, etc. then right on up the hierarchy. I would wish the loss of rights on those people who don't participate, except I would lose mine, too.

I wonder how many of these non-voters get all caught up in keeping up with info on their favorite sports teams, or vote on performers on TV shows and other entertainment venue items?

When I hear people complain, the first thing I ask is if they voted in the gen'l election, did they vote in the primary, and depending on the individual, a few other choice non-offenseive questions. Sometimes, they actually get the point, and takes the wind right out of their sails, but not always.

Wish I knew if it motivated them to vote. Probably only motivated them to make sure they didn't bring up the topic again with me.