Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Never move in August...
At least not in an election year. I had about a three day window in which I could get my drivers license and register to vote. Had to be a resident so many weeks, had to register so many weeks before the election. If we'd moved even a few days later, I wouldn't have been able to vote in Ohio at all, and somehow, as much as I believe in voting, a four hour drive (two hours each way) to cast a vote in a race I know the Republicans will win anyway didn't seem like a very good use of time.
One of the great things about moving to Ohio is I feel much more like I can make a difference here. My part of Indiana was so solidly Republican that there was no chance for a Democrat to win. In fact, it was so anti-Democrat that one fellow who thought the Republican party had gotten too liberal ran as a Democrat in local elections, so as to bring things further to the right! YIKES! So much for progressive candidates!
I'm already looking forward to voting for my new Senators, and I imagine it will be a close race. One thing's for sure. Trying to get information on candidates, it's clear that television is the dominant media. You can scrounge up info on the Internet, and papers run occassional columns, but all the focus these days is on tv ads, even more so than in the past it seems. There certainly is almost nothing on radio, at least, not the radio stations I listen to. (mostly npr, classical music stations, oldies or hip hop, every once in a while I'll turn into an am all news station.)
One huge difference between the Republicans and the Democrats in my district is the tenor of the ads... the Republicans attacked the other guy, rather than saying what they stood for, while the Democrat said what he stood for or offered testimonials from constituents about how he had helped them. That alone is reason enough to vote Democrat.
Unfortunately, it seems like there is not enough difference between Democrats and Republicans... I sure wish the party had a lot more spine when confronting some of Bush's abuses of power.
And speaking of abuses of power... hope to see y'all at the demonstrations tomorrow! Say no to torture! No to ever increasing militarism! Silence in the face of what is happening today in America is collusion. ¶ 9:02 PM
One of the great things about moving to Ohio is I feel much more like I can make a difference here. My part of Indiana was so solidly Republican that there was no chance for a Democrat to win. In fact, it was so anti-Democrat that one fellow who thought the Republican party had gotten too liberal ran as a Democrat in local elections, so as to bring things further to the right! YIKES! So much for progressive candidates!
I'm already looking forward to voting for my new Senators, and I imagine it will be a close race. One thing's for sure. Trying to get information on candidates, it's clear that television is the dominant media. You can scrounge up info on the Internet, and papers run occassional columns, but all the focus these days is on tv ads, even more so than in the past it seems. There certainly is almost nothing on radio, at least, not the radio stations I listen to. (mostly npr, classical music stations, oldies or hip hop, every once in a while I'll turn into an am all news station.)
One huge difference between the Republicans and the Democrats in my district is the tenor of the ads... the Republicans attacked the other guy, rather than saying what they stood for, while the Democrat said what he stood for or offered testimonials from constituents about how he had helped them. That alone is reason enough to vote Democrat.
Unfortunately, it seems like there is not enough difference between Democrats and Republicans... I sure wish the party had a lot more spine when confronting some of Bush's abuses of power.
And speaking of abuses of power... hope to see y'all at the demonstrations tomorrow! Say no to torture! No to ever increasing militarism! Silence in the face of what is happening today in America is collusion. ¶ 9:02 PM
