*Betsy steps up on soapbox.*
Ahem...Ok, so the midterm elections (do I have that right?) are coming up on November 7th, exactly two weeks from today. This year, I'm frustrated by the elections and here's why.
Since Government class my junior year in high school, and probably before then, I have heard that it is not only my right, but my responsibility, to vote. I agree with this. I do think it's important to be involved in our democratic government, and I know that a lot of woman participated in the suffrage movement so that I could vote.
The reason I'm leaning towards not voting is that I am a completely uneducated voter. I'm sure part of the reason is that I don't pay much attention to local news. But it seems like there are two things that politicians running for office are spending money on. The first thing is nice bright signs with their names on them, and possibly what they are running for.
The second thing is completely worthless political ads on TV. For the past month or two, I've been doing everything I can to tune these ads out. Then I realized that I'm not fulfilling my civic duty, so I've started paying attention. So, I know a bunch of names of Iowa politicians now: Nussle, Culver, (who are both running for governor), Hogg, Braley, and Whalen (I don't know what they're running for).
Here's what I've learned so far. Nussle practically worships Bush, (which is bad, of course), and Hogg pronounces his name "hoe-g." Braley is an evil trial lawyer who is single-handedly driving up my medical expenses, so I should vote for Whalen. Whalen believes in Social Security privitization and he's clearly wrong WRONG WRONG so I should vote for Braley. And I can't remember anything about Culver except that his last name is the same as a fast food chain in town that serves really good ice cream...mmm, ice cream.
Is this supposed to help me make an informed decision? Is anyone else frustrated with this?
*Betsy steps down.*
2 comments:
Right there with ya, Bets. The TX Gubernatorial debate was on TV a few weeks ago, and we missed it, so we went out of our way to borrow a taped copy from my parents and watch it.
What a disappointment! Three of the four candidates said nothing but catch phrases or just flatly contradicted each other (without appealing to any, you know, facts -- it was the equivalent of "You are corrupt!" "Am not!" "Are so!" "Nuh-uh!"). The remaining candidate (Kinky) wants to declare martial law to protect our borders, then build casinos to pay for education. (Which in effect taxes the poor to pay for the middle class to go to school. But that's my own soapbox :-) But at least he SAID WHAT HE WAS PLANNING TO DO!
Interestingly, women who argued *against* women's suffrage did so for pretty much the reason you're complaining about: they thought the women at that time were too busy with domestic affairs to be well informed about politics. Now it's more like nobody is well informed about politics! And when I do go out of the way to be informed (e.g., by watching a debate), all I learn is that none of the candidates seem remotely suitable.
We should pray for some Lutheran politicians who will live out their vocations, loving and serving their neighbors (aka constituents), by governing justly and being good stewards.
Oh, yeah -- why not vote for Martin Luther?
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