My trip today, to my polling place - it was a sad day.

So this afternoon I fulfilled my civic obligation and made the trip to my polling place to vote, it had moved but I knew where to. Due to budget cuts some of the polling places were consolidated, for me it was the other end of the same building. Before there were two, one on the south end of the building and one on the north, now there is just the one. When I got home Bride was ready to go, we ALWAYS go together to vote, so away we went. When we arrived and were walking in and we noticed a Mother with her teenage kids in tow. We started talking about how great it is that a parent involves their kids on the voting process before they are actually old enough to vote. I do not think kids understand the importance of voting and I thought it was a great way to give them an insight before they are there for the first time to vote themselves.

So on this day we go in and there is a line, no worries I thought. It appeared that the line ended at the A-K area of the desk and there was another area that ended in L-Z that was unoccupied. I asked the man who was standing in the line in front of me “is this the line for the A-K folks”. His response stunned me, although I do not know why due to the rude nature of so many folks out there today. He said “this is THE line that we are all waiting in” in a very nasty tone, to which I responded – “oh, I see that your line terminates in the A-K and that is why I asked”. Well before Mr. Polite could respond the poll worker sitting in the empty L-Z line asked, “anyone with a last name that starts with L through Z come on over here. I could barely contain myself when he and his wife shuffled to the L-Z line, right in front of me. What I did not do was contain the gigantic smart ass smile that I kept plastered on my face until Mr. Polite left the polling place.

While waiting in the line an older gentleman came in using a cane and not looking like he was in the best of health. He took up a post right behind Bride and I. I immediately offered him a cut in line, he did not want to and after a couple of go arounds with me I assured him that I was young and it did not bother me one bit and I would be honored to give up my spot. Well Mr. polite, who is not 2 feet in front of me never even turns around, I can tell his ass is still chapped and my stupid assed smile probably contributed to his embarrassment for being such an ass. Well after a moment his Bride offers the older man a cut in line as well, not a word or gesture from Mr. Polite. I know it should not be this way but I was thoroughly enjoying watching this guy after being proved wrong about “the” line. I suppose that means there is something wrong with me for thinking that way. Bride and I voted and we were on our way, we went on down to the river to see if the weather was whipping up the water, and it was.

As we sat there we started talking about Mr. Polite and his poor attitude. It seemed to me an out of context answer, he was sarcastic and just mean about answering my simple question about the line. It made me wonder what was going on his life that would make him such a miserable cuss. Maybe it was not some recent event, maybe it was something that happened a long time ago and he for some reason let it ruin his life. He was very cold to his wife as well, we could barely tell that they were together in line, Bride and I were standing there holding hands, this guy and his bride were just standing there with horrible sour puss mugs on. I feel sorry for him, something happened in his life that he allowed to poison his soul and let himself become the victim. Who knows, I got all that from just listening to him and watching his actions for the few minutes we were together. Oh well, I can only hope that he finds something to be optimistic about and let the poison from his heart.

As we sat there we talked about our new policy of voting out the incumbents, it is very hard but I am convinced the only way to make a change is to get rid of all of the folks who have been driving the bus. But when I find my choices of non-incumbents morally repugnant, ethically reprehensible and bankrupt of any honor what so ever it becomes difficult to mark the spot for them. But the folks who have been running things have taken our country down the wrong road, way down that wrong road and it is time to back the hell up and take the other fork. This has been the most divisive mean spirited election cycle that I can ever remember and I for one hate it! If these damn candidates spent half as much time working on solving some problems as they did on digging up dirt on the other dirt-bag maybe we could get someplace or get something fixed.

I do not want to hear them talking about the other candidates, I want to hear what they are going to do to make changes. What cracks me up is that in an ad attacking the other candidate that they have the cohones to say, it is not about me, it is about you – bullshit, bullshit and more bullshit. It is all about them, anyone who believes it is about us does not live in the same world that I live in. The only thing that redeems my method of voting is this, that dirt bag will be voted out by me in the next election cycle. If we all do it, maybe, just maybe we will make it what it is supposed to be, a public service, not a career where you get to change the rules while playing the game.

The absoluteness of the power that our elected officials hold is SCARY as hell to me. They will never vote for campaign finance reform, they will never stop voting themselves raises and they will never vote for term limits. They have done a lot of work up there, I for one do not think they have done enough for us, the folks who voted for them. I do think however that they have done A LOT for big business, the folks who actually got them into office. WHAT you might be asking?? We vote for them because they get ads on television and they get those ads on television because the political action committees. The money from the special interest groups is what actually get someone into office and when they arrive, they are not allowed to forget who put them there. While technically we voted them in there, we were BOMBARDED with and ad campaign that would put Budweiser and Coke to shame – that is their modus operandi.

So what do I expect, well I expect the give aways to dry up, but which ones? All of them and that is why the incumbents are not going to be able to make the changes necessary. They do not have the political will to get it done, every group sucking in the government teat has a lobbying group. Those groups bought their candidates and they are expected to take care of their interests, be it senior citizen programs or after school programs or programs designed to assist folks who are disabled. That is not even a scratch on the surface of the things we (collectively as tax payers) can afford to continue to pay for. The decisions that need to be made will be hard and have horrible impact on the folks who rely on this program or that program when it goes away. Is it right, hell no it ain’t right but to continue to spend money like drunken sailors needs to come to an end – period. No matter how well intentioned any program is when there is not enough money to pay for it, it has to go. The government has taken up the role of local organizations, that are suffering because we can no longer donate to them as much as we used to because the government is sucking up all our extra money in the form of taxes.

I bet there are hundreds upon hundreds of programs that the government has that were never in the charter, not the government’s responsibility, not in the day of our founding fathers and not today. I am not sure what the answers are but I do know that to do the same thing (keep sending the incumbents back) over and over again and somehow expecting different results (expecting them to do the right thing) is the definition of insanity and I do not want to play anymore with the crazies. We gotta vote them all out, no matter how horrible the options. If they have held any office, their opponents get my vote or I vote for the one with the least amount of political office time under their belts. I am saddened that I have to do this but it is the only way I know of to actually fix things. I have determined the thing that is broken is not the actual things but the people we elected to work on those very problems, they have mucked it up and are unable to fix anything because they are beholden to those who got them into office and not us the victims of their greed and excess.