May as well write in Elmo

I voted today. I don't know how many elections I've voted in now, but I think it is somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen since it's been eight years since I've been legally allowed to vote and I vote in just about every election, even the May general election, which usually just includes ballot referendums such as levying a one-cent sales tax to pay for a bond, etc., etc. And I like educating myself on just what the bonds will pay for and amusing myself with the fact that a lot of people my age vote in presidential elections only and don't bother to educate themselves on saying no to say yes to the Trinity referendum, etc.

Anyway, I voted. And I've never been so thrilled to not vote for someone in the two party system bwahahahahahahahaha. All I have to say is $700 billion my ass. After mulling it over one dollar at a time (which is to say, 700 billion times), your humble blogger got realll annoyed with both of the major presidential candidates, decided to continue forward with her plan to vote for the lesser of two evils, and then changed her mind again to vote for neither candidate and just write in Big Bird for president because that's about how much I like our options right now. (P.S. I really miss John McCain's "Straight Talk Express" days.)

And then I got realll annoyed that if you don't vote it's like you're a bad American and a baby-killer and our founding fathers died for our country etc. And I got realll annoyed with the idea that educating yourself and deciding NOT to vote is in no way considered an expression of your opinion by the public at large. But, as much as I did not want to vote for anyone in the two party system, I figured I ought to vote for the congressional folks and senators and such.

Anyway, there was a point to this post and I promise I didn't intend to just go on and on ranting for paragraphs. My point was 1) if you don't feel you can vote your conscience, don't vote against it; and 2) if you do decide you can, in good conscience, cast a vote, consider political philosophy rather than simply a few key issues. What I mean by that is: ask yourself what you feel government ought to do by its very definition and then vote according to that philosophy rather than just voting against the guy who supports abortion or for the guy who supports lower taxes. I think I've got a pretty clear idea of the governing philosophy's of John McCain and Barack Obama, so I voted with those in mind.

(Which is to say I voted for neither of them. Which was pretty much a direct result of the aforementioned $700 billion handout tantamount to corporate welfare/a big wet sloppy kiss from the federal government. Which is different than I originally intended to do because I really do like John McCain because war heroes and veterans just get to me.)

In 2005, there was a referendum on the Texas ballot to define marriage as between a man and a woman and to effectively make same-sex marriages illegal. I was working at the Trib at the time, and people had these really strong opinions about how if gay people get married it somehow invalidates straight peoples' marriages blah blah blah. I voted against it, but it passed anyway, since Texas is the conservative bastion that it is. I thought about it this morning on my way to my polling place and I remembered that at the time of the 2005 election, there were a lot of other contributing factors that had me all bothered about whether or not such an amendment should be part of the state's constitution. And then there was the whole issue of how it's a big deal to alter the constitution. Ya know? Anyway, I voted against it and was really struck by how strongly I still feel about it, even today. No matter what you believe about gay marriage, the idea that it should be the state's job to define something as spiritual and private as marriage is almost ludicrous.

So, if you do vote, at least think about more than just who likes the environment more and who wants to drilbabydrill and whose vice presidential pick you don't like.