Monday, November 12, 2012

Democracy in....Action?

Last Tuesday I dropped by my local middle school to cats my ballot. The school is right around the corner, so i figured the process wouldn't take long. Wrong! I opened the door - CHAOS. Lines of voters snake around the tables in crazy zigzag patterns, intersecting and looping around like a knot that can't be untied.

So I wait, and wait, and wait some more...2 1/2 hours in total. The bottleneck is right in front of the voting booths, where the three election volunteers have to manually look up every person's name before they can vote.

The voting itself is pretty low-tech - just a little cubicle to shield your ballot from prying eyes. The form itself is very SATs; fill in the bubble. No stray marks! I vote for who you expect me to vote for and submit it, the end.

Now the election is over,  a few observations:

- it seems pretty obvious that the old GOP coalition can't carry an election anymore. Not because they've moderated; it's just that their constituencies are aging and therefor dying off.

- On the GOP truly becoming the party of 'Greedy Old People', I do find it funny that the group which was strongest for Romney (the elderly) is also by far the biggest recipient of government aid.

- In the near future (unless we enter a second Era of Good Feeling) we're going to see a rift in one of the major parties. I couldn't say what the exact cause will be, but my bet it will be immigration.


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