Just Not Feeling It

I have to give some credit to political forces at work to suppress participation in the process--they actually have me thinking about skipping an election.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy the political process--and how much I like voting.  But today, I am just not feeling it.

I almost feel like that by going out to vote in a totally un-neccessary primary, I'm giving some tacit endorsement of the effort that went into creating it.  I voted in this race less than two years ago--and I hired that guy for a four year gig.  Nobody said there would be a mid-term re-examination of that decision--not that I would change my mind anyway.

And then there is the "strategy" that maybe I should cross over and vote in the other race.  Rush Limbaugh called it "Operation Chaos" back in 2008--encouraging his listeners to go out and vote for Hillary Clinton so that Barack Obama would have to continue to spend campaign funds on the primary process--instead of stockpiling it for the general election.  How did that work out?

Besides, a vote is not part of some political game.  I take my ballot selections very seriously.  I don't pick the "lesser of two evils" or "the candidate that will do the least damage" as a compromise.  In fact, there were a number of races in the April elections where I didn't vote for a single candidate--the reasons for that are listed in previous "My Two Cents".  If you don't earn it--you don't get it from me.

Perhaps today's primary just reminds me that we are only at the halfway mark of this recall process.  If you though the TV ads, the phone calls and the fliers in the mail were annoying to this point--you ain't seen nothing yet.  Governor Walker has 25-million dollars to spend--and if Kathleen Falk somehow pulls off a miracle win today, the public sector unions pulling her strings will come in with a bunch of cash as well.  Good thing these recalls will be done before the Presidential election kicks into high gear--or we may have to cancel all regular radio and TV programming just to run all of the ads.

So I will try to work up the enthusiasm to head to the polls today if for no other reason to keep my 18-year streak of never missing an election intact.