Heffelumps and Donkeys
I admit it. I've spent time in my life blaming the wrong people for the anger, fear, and discomfort I felt towards myself, leading to intolerance when it was still cool to be intolerant. I cannot say that I've ever had anything in common with the belief system of the GOP. I was lucky enough to live and meet people who've done the same, and I learned that I was more afraid of myself than I was of anything that my disturbing and misshapen understanding of gay people represented. My backlash to my intolerance was to throw myself into a complete state of accepting... that everything that people do in pursuit of the BIG 3 (life, liberty, happiness...) was copecetic.
That's not to say that I've never been a registered Republican. Back in the early days of the MotorVoter, the young lady behind the counter at the DOT in North Miami asked me if I wanted to update my voter registration while changing the address on my license. She neglected to ask me my party affiliation and assumed me to be a GOP kind of guy (maybe it was the way I was dressed?) This led to an interesting position though, with Florida's closed primary system: I hold the distinct pleasure of voting against W and Jeb a combined total of 5 times, 3 times as a Republican. Counting tonight and 1992, I've been voting against the GOP for 14 years. A lot of good it's done me in this pathetic state.
I realize that the thing that the Dems are doing wrong is appealing to working people, like my wife and I. We are flat broke, and can scarcely afford to donate to the "feed-a-starving-teacher-and-his-college-student-wife fund," much less any candidate or party. The nice phone fund raiser from the DNC got a chuckle out of this and asked me to consider putting money on my credit cards, but I'm pretty sure I'm still paying off money given to the DNC and to Kerry in '04.
If Charlie Crist wins tonight, the sun will still shine tomorrow, albeit with a nasty grey haze about it. We will continue on business as usual, giving 3rd graders a test that will effect the rest of their educational lives, giving schools grades, and giving schools a pittance-like bonus that shatters the harmony of schools. Additionally, we, the idiot voters of Florida will be giving Crist the ability to revoke the class size amendment by removing majority rule, a fact we won't fully realize until we try to muster the votes necessary to revoke this amendment 3 (requiring a super-majority of at least 1 million votes to change the state constitution). Our state congress will continue to rubber stamp all of the governor's stupid policies and follow the president blindly into oblivion. We as Floridians will continue to support the wealthy corporations at the expense of ourselves. Insurance companies will run roughshod over us, raising their rates further into cost-prohibitive levels and will up and leave when the payouts get too close to their CEO's bonus thresholds.
I'm glad to be supporting the Donkey, even if I sometimes feel like a loser in the process. I'm not glad to be poor, but I'm proud to be a little guy standing up for myself.
Enough complaining. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to counting my money.
Gee. That was quick.
That's not to say that I've never been a registered Republican. Back in the early days of the MotorVoter, the young lady behind the counter at the DOT in North Miami asked me if I wanted to update my voter registration while changing the address on my license. She neglected to ask me my party affiliation and assumed me to be a GOP kind of guy (maybe it was the way I was dressed?) This led to an interesting position though, with Florida's closed primary system: I hold the distinct pleasure of voting against W and Jeb a combined total of 5 times, 3 times as a Republican. Counting tonight and 1992, I've been voting against the GOP for 14 years. A lot of good it's done me in this pathetic state.
I realize that the thing that the Dems are doing wrong is appealing to working people, like my wife and I. We are flat broke, and can scarcely afford to donate to the "feed-a-starving-teacher-and-his-college-student-wife fund," much less any candidate or party. The nice phone fund raiser from the DNC got a chuckle out of this and asked me to consider putting money on my credit cards, but I'm pretty sure I'm still paying off money given to the DNC and to Kerry in '04.
If Charlie Crist wins tonight, the sun will still shine tomorrow, albeit with a nasty grey haze about it. We will continue on business as usual, giving 3rd graders a test that will effect the rest of their educational lives, giving schools grades, and giving schools a pittance-like bonus that shatters the harmony of schools. Additionally, we, the idiot voters of Florida will be giving Crist the ability to revoke the class size amendment by removing majority rule, a fact we won't fully realize until we try to muster the votes necessary to revoke this amendment 3 (requiring a super-majority of at least 1 million votes to change the state constitution). Our state congress will continue to rubber stamp all of the governor's stupid policies and follow the president blindly into oblivion. We as Floridians will continue to support the wealthy corporations at the expense of ourselves. Insurance companies will run roughshod over us, raising their rates further into cost-prohibitive levels and will up and leave when the payouts get too close to their CEO's bonus thresholds.
I'm glad to be supporting the Donkey, even if I sometimes feel like a loser in the process. I'm not glad to be poor, but I'm proud to be a little guy standing up for myself.
Enough complaining. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to counting my money.
Gee. That was quick.
posted by M? @ 10:35 PM
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