Super Tuesday
After my previous post, I was conflicted about who I ought to vote for today. On the one hand, the same logic ought to apply to both the primary and the general election, but on the other hand, I could rationalize that voting in the primary signifies not that I want this person in office, but that I want this person to be the chosen candidate from their party.
I didn’t have time to reregister after I moved to Rogers Park, so a 15 mile trek was in order before I could do the deed. Upon arrival, I was slapped in the face with what should have been an obvious reality: one must declare a party in order to vote in that party’s primary. My internal conflict evaporated as I asked for a non-partisan ballot, which had but a single item: a county referendum. I expressed my thoughts with the stroke of a pen and returned to my non-partisan life.
15 February 2008 at 11:35 am
So how does it work there, do they have some type of “official” primary election, with multiple parties in a single polling place? This seems very strange to me, since there’s absolutely nothing official about a primary election! This has really been bothering me, because so many people fail to realise that the primary election is only internal party policy and there is no requirement that people be given any vote at all in who a particular party endorses. Four years ago when I went to the Democratic primary, I didn’t even vote in the end because they required me to “sign in,” giving them my name and address and signifying that I agree with the Democratic party platform, which I surely do not in its entirety. This really bothered me. As I have said for many years, I think one of the most important issues we should be focusing on is reforming our own political electoral process, with proportional representation and instant run-off voting or something similar. Sadly, I haven’t seen this issue raised at all during this election, nor are people even talking about the election disparities of the previous two presidential elections. I certainly agree that people are fuelling the continuation of this broken system.
15 February 2008 at 12:55 pm
Absolutely. I have the same issues as you. Even when I was young and stupid and voted for John Kerry, I was still loathe to call myself a Democrat. Two years ago I worked on a non partisan campaign which was coopted by Dem operatives, and got a chance to see how they really like to work. Anyway, there’s so much wrong with our electoral process. I think the most tangible things we can work on are campaign finance reform (my view is that all campaigns should be taxpayer-funded, with no donations allowed, and capped at the same level), and getting rid of this ridiculous two-party system (which is mostly convention anyway).
People are just SO hungry for hope, the let themselves believe comfortable lies.