About Time
The day is finally here. I, for one, am glad. I'm tired of the polls, debates, and general stupidity that happens in election years ("Vote or Die"!??). I'll be glad when we can finally move on to the recount stage.
Cynicism aside, here's roughly how I plan on voting later this afternoon, put here largely so I can clarify it in my own head.
1. President - GWB, for these reasons: (1) from what I've heard reported by multiple reliable sources, Bush is an honest and sincere guy genuinely trying to do the right thing. Honesty, sincerity, and integrity are, obviously, not the only prerequisites, but they do count for something, especially when Kerry seems to have none of the above.
(2) I don't know the intricacies of modern Middle East politics and whether or not Iraq was The Right Thing. Still, while it is always easy to criticize, I have yet to hear any better idea. And Kerry's constant vacillations give me no comfort that he'd be willing to make the unpleasant choices necessary in unpleasant times.
(3) While Bush hasn't been as consistent about social issues as I'd like, I still agree with him on things like abortion and gay marriage and disagree with Kerry.
Lastly, while there are those who think there is no real choice and thus one should vote for someone "with real integrity," I think that there is a substantial enough difference between Bush and Kerry to make Bush a worthwhile vote. Plus, I dislike Kerry's policies enough to want to make sure he doesn't come in to power.
2. MD Senate - I'm not terribly excited about the choices here. Pipkin seems too moderate, Mikulski too liberal, Allwine too wacko, and Trump too conservative. I'm tempted to vote Trump, just to give a third party a boost, but, in the end, Pipkin probably has the best shot at getting across things that I do want, so I'm going to compromise and vote him.
As a side note, some of the write-in candidates for senate are fascinating. See Gayle-El's position papers and raybly.com.
3. MD Congress - I'm a little more happy with my choices here. There's a fair amount of stuff that I actually agree with Ruppersberger on, but Jane Brooks is closer, so I'll be voting for her. Although I'm pretty sure Dutch will win.
4. Judges- not much choice here. The incumbents will stay incumbents.
5. County Questions - this is one area where I really wish I knew more. Baltimore County's asking to borrow $230 million dollars for various projects, and I have no idea how valid the request is. My gut reaction as a fan of limited government with an innate distrust of government spending is to vote against everything. But I simply don't have enough information or understanding. Just to be cantankerous, I'll most likely vote 'Against.'
The nice thing about being a Calvinist is that I don't have to freak out if things don't go the way I hope. I really don't want Kerry to win, but if he does, the world will go on. Psalm 2 still holds.
And, hopefully, this will be my last political post of this length in a while.
November 2, 2004 11:53 AMyou are well-informed, maphet. i, on the other hand, have been demotivated enough by our two candidates that i may not even make it to the polls.
Pondered by abe at November 2, 2004 03:51 PM