Sigh

[selenite0]

Sometimes I wonder if there's any chance I'm going to last in a Unitarian church. Yesterday morning I went to the pre-service adult forum talk. They had a poli sci prof talking about voter turn-out. His handout listed the categories of registered voters who don't usually vote by demographic attributes. I was amused to see I fell into the "Irritables" category--news junkies who don't vote or vote for third parties. Given that I have yet to vote for a major-party candidate for president that describes me pretty well.

Turns out that's the group the prof hates the most. Not just for their views, though he did some mocking of those, but because they'll vote their conscience. This is apparently a travesty of voting, which is about "gaining power, taking power away from other people, exercising power." Great. Not only am I disagreeing with these folks on most issues, but actually wanting to discuss issues instead of us-vs-them makes me a bad guy. Sheesh.

I actually wanted to discuss the issue, my viewpoint being that if we had candidates who came closer to our positions instead of driving us away with barrages of ads we'd vote more, but instead I just kept my mouth shut. If I'm not going to get listened to there's no point in drawing flack.

Comments

Re: Third Party...

[bkseiver.livejournal.com]

At least you didn't have to choose between KKK leader David Duke and good-ol boy Edwin Edwards (now residing in federal prison) for governor! That was my low point.

(Laura's Mom)