Dear Granddaughter,While my mother assures me I was much more interested in the sheep at the time, I can't remember ever not caring about the political process. Though I frequently mixed up the words "liberal" and "conservative" and was unable to match them correctly with "left wing" and "right wing," I have always known where I stood when it came to Republicans and Democrats. I will never forget, and neither will my best friend from grade school, the conversation we had as eight-year-olds in which I demanded she choose a party loyalty. Her answer being not so satisfactory, I demanded, "You mean you would have voted for NIXON?! Don't you know that he resigned?!"
At the top of this page are the names of two good people who were just not elected to the offices of President and Vice President of the United States. As good Democrats, they advocated for strong education, affordable healthcare and programs to help the poor. Unfortunately, George Bush and Dan Quayle with their promise of no new taxes were able to sway the election. What this means is less healthcare, less education, and lots of people without jobs. I am writing to you because it is extremely important that as you grow up you pay close attention to the views of politicians and cast votes for those that care more about people than money. I hope you talk this over with your parents.
Love, Grampa
P.S. Kelley and Stephanie [two sheep I had named a year before] have not had their lambs yet, if it happens I will send you pictures.
Keep your comments about brainwashing to yourselves.
Anyway, now I feel like some kind of politics junkie. I cover my local podunk journal, New York Times, BBC websites, a smattering of blogs and all of my car radio pre-sets are for the regional public radio station. Firefox's tabbed browsing is really a killer because as a member of the multi-tasking generation, I get twitchy if I don't have all of these sites open at once. Which brings me to the primaries.
I just got home from watching the coverage at Turtle's house (CNN, MSNBC for commercial breaks, peaks at Faux News for kicks) and I'm having trouble feeling any emotion at all. Well, ok, I'm pretty psyched about Huckabee because there's no way in heckles he can win, but if he does, I'm moving because then we really are a fallen nation beyond hope. But over on the democratic side, I never got around to really picking. It's like when my uncle finally put that inground pool, he agonized over what to choose for surrounding patio surfacing. Too much research lead him to an impasse because he was so thoroughly versed in the drawbacks of all of his options. The Hillary/Edwards/Obama trifecta is sort of the same deal. Heck, I like all of them better than the front runners last time around, but the excessive reading and comparing has left me in a funk. A few days ago I said I was rooting for Obama, but then felt as guilty as the time I lost my stuffed bunny "bunny" under my bed a didn't notice for days because Snowy the bear was my favorite. So I kind of like Edwards, but then I feel guilty for not wanting to be dedicated to breaking the white male stranglehold on the presidency. And gosh, that Hillary Clinton is trying so hard. It just kills my inner Nice Minnesota Girl to root against her.
I'm going to bed. We'll let those crazies up in New Hampshire decide.
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i love that you wrote about this because i was just reading up on the candidates, feeling guilty as a former nh resident that i had done little to no research so late in the game, and i realized that obama, edwards, and clinton are all mushed into one in my head. their stances on issues are so similar, how am i supposed to pick? is it really going to come down to the woman, the black guy, or the white dude...? excuse my lack of politically correctness, but i mean really. clearly i need to do more research. it hardly matters out here in washington i learned though since our primary isn't until late february and, get this, the democrats don't take into account the results from the washington primary at all. yup that's right, not at all. washington has a caucus in addition to a primary, and that they apparently pay attention to. why have a primary that doesn't matter at all and just costs money? that's what i'm wondering. i don't even really understand what a caucus involves but i might have to go find out...
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