Tomorrow is Election Day here in the U.S. Not an important day for most Americans, who are apathetic about anythign that doesn't directly affect their own tiny lives. One way to help voter turnout would be to give the day off to workers, as many other countries do, or to hold elections on a weekend, when more folks are off. Ohio has absentee ballots, which can be had for the asking & one can mail it in up to a month before Election Day. That's what I've been doing the last couple years, that way I don't have to worry about getting sick & missing it.
I've always been interested in politics & world events. When I turned 18, it didn't matter that I was then able to drink beer, but that I could now register to vote.I'm a fiercely liberal Democrat, but there are a few Republicans that I like. One of these is Christine Todd Whitman, who was the first woman governor of New Jersey & also part of Dubya's cabinet. I recently read her memoir & reviewed it on Vulpes Libris at here
Though I watch political oriented shows like Rachel Maddow & Jon Stewart all year round, on Election Day, the reports of races around the country makes me feel like a sports fanatic waiting to see how my favorite teams did. I'm disappointed when races are too close to call & need a few days to be counted.
The U.S. ought to go towards a system such as England's, where the candidates have a limited time and amount of money that they are allowed to spend campaigning. The amount that some candidates are spending this year is ridiculous, in some cases, it's more than the job actually earns.And to think of all the trees destroyed to make those insipid advertising flyers! Aside from the negative ads, the commercials promoting the politicians are all very similar: candidate talking to multi-cultural group of people in a business or factory setting(or both), candidate talking to elderly people, then shaking hands with police officers and last, a family portrait, complete with dog. I really don't understand why the family clip is so important, is it to show they are fertile or stable or have good genes? It's probably something to do with "family values", but then, the Nazi's had good family values too.
This year there are a lot of scary extremist candidates, full of bigotry, misogyny and stupidity, sometimes all three. I really hope none of them are elected, but some of them are doing surprisingly well in their region according to surveys.Fingers crossed that they are defeated & that ultimately, decent people are the ones who win.