knitabit

The Political Wrap-Up

A commentary on the election results.

OK, my candidate lost.

I think the Dems had a particularly undistinguished group of candidates at the outset. I never warmed up to Kerry. His Vietnam experience, though admirable, was over-emphasized to the point of okay, enough already. His acceptance speech at the convention was the first hint of trouble. Later missteps included the Mary Cheney remark and the duck-hunting photo-op. But I don't know which of the other candidates would have been better - certainly not Edwards or Dean. I hope the whole batch of them disappear into obscurity, and that they take Hillary with them.

But you know, it obviously doesn't matter which Democratic candidate you put up against Bush when so many in this country are casting votes based on our country being on the "wrong moral track."

I feel alienated from my fellow citizens today. I understand and respect Republican philosophies about limited government, less taxation, and free markets. I don't necessarily agree, but I respect it. But this stuff about being on the wrong moral track and looking to the government to fix it - well, you lost me on that one.

I expect that during the next four years (or maybe longer), while they shove their "morals" down my throat, I can also look forward to pre-emptive attacks against non-Christian countries, deficit spending, increasing health care costs, gay-bashing, more death penalty verdicts, and maybe even creationism curriculum mandates and a return of the draft. Some morality.

But worst of all, the leader of the free world is a complete idiot, unable to form coherent sentences, admit an error, or conceive an original thought. May God have mercy on us all.

Fortunately, there are a few gems among the ashes:

• Ken Salazar won our open Senate seat, and his brother John was elected to the 4th District House seat. They are such neat people with such interesting roots; I wish them well and am proud they represent Colorado.
• The Democrats overtook BOTH HOUSES in Colorado. Totally unexpected, and quite unbelievable. With a Republican Governor, we're in for complete legislative gridlock, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. At least we don't have to worry about wacky concealed gun measures or school prayer or pledge of allegiance crap this session. Maybe they'll actually look into the fiscal mess we're in.
• Weld County has the best voting system ever! It rocks! All of Weld County's votes were tabulated and online by 9:30 last night. (By contrast, Boulder County is STILL counting votes from their brand-new, $1.3M piece of crap system more than 24 hours after the polls closed.) In Weld County, our ballots are on a single oversized heavyweight page - printed front and back, and we mark our votes by coloring in ovals with a felt-tipped pen. Here's the cool part: after the ballot is marked, you insert it into a machine (maybe 4' high, 2' square) that instantly reads your ballot. When the polls close, they hook up the machine to the phone line, and the machine sends its tabulated results to Greeley (the County Seat.) The paper ballots remain inside the machine, which is then transported back to Greeley. Upon arrival, they re-run the ballots through another machine to check for errors, and refer to the paper ballots to resolve any discrepancies. So simple, so effective - so much better than all the touch-screens, punch ballots or other voting machines you read about.

I was too depressed to knit today. I expect to resume tomorrow.

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