Friday, November 10, 2006

A Great Yawn

That strange gurgling noise you hear is the Duchy's collective yawn of indifference over the election and its aftermath.

This is not a normal state of things. We have both been running ourselves ragged on the campaign circuit since long before we had drivers' licenses. In fact, I did my practice driving going door-to-door. Even the year my mother died of cancer the day before the election, I spent October evenings at the phone bank. (This was as she wished it. She personally made sure to send in her absentee ballot in plenty of time, just in case.)

After our marriage, although our efforts in total quantity diminished, proportional to time available they continued unabated. I made phone calls when laid low with morning sickness and staffed party headquarters while rocking a baby with one foot. Last year, admittedly, we didn't do much, but then we lived in a one-party county and there wasn't anything to do come November.

This year, there might have been something to do, had we cared. But we could not bring ourselves to vote for any of the national candidates, not even with the House and Senate at stake. We rather hoped the Republicans would lose them, as they do a better job when they've been out of power for awhile.

We did vote, of course. Just because a duty is unpleasant doesn't make it any less a duty. Unpleasant it was, because by the time we made it to the polls the wait was an hour. A good part of the problem must have been the ballots, which have gone from punch card to fill-in-the-blank, and a very large blank it is, too. I haven't scribbled so much since the bar exam. No wonder people took so long.

So it is over. Now we can watch the Democrats to see if they can figure out anything to do for the next two years. It should be entertaining, but it's unlikely to cause much harm. Checks and balances are a beautiful thing.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this way about voting. Usually, I'm stuffing envelopes with the best of them; this year, I couldn't even bring myself to mention Election Day on my blog.

Carrie said...

Same here. Whoopdy-do! I had other things to think about that were far more enjoyable.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I think you're wrong about the harm they CAN do, but now that they are actually in power, I doubt they actually WILL. It's different when you're factually accountable to the people and have a Presidential election looming in two years that you want to win.

Otherwise, I agree with you on the Republicans, but I am IN the military (reserves) as is my husband (active duty), and the Democratic lunacy and Bush Derangement Syndrome thus far has scared many of us in the military about the stupidity that they CAN (again, maybe not WILL) effect on us. Call me cynical, but the Dems haven't done anything good for the military since oh, JFK (war or no war...Dems were the "hawk" party at the beginning of the Vietnam War--they started it, although we did go in for "police action" during the Eisenhower years)! And it was a Democratic Congress under a Republican president who refused to fund and forced us to cut and run when we were winning. But the history books won't show those things...)

Anyway, we have a stake in this, and we know WHY we're over in Iraq, so we care. Unlike most people, we voted Republican this year, straight ticket, because the fate of our nation and the war on terror is far more important to us than "corruption" (ha, it's not equal on both sides? Right), or immigration or the economy or anything else.

I do agree with you that things will probably get better within the Republican party now that they are out of power. Checks and balances being what they are. However, I don't trust the Dems as far as I can throw them, and as I'm seven months pregnant, so that's not far at all.

And my Libertarian leanings are always held in check by the fact that generally the L and I candidates are not running on moderation...and though I have deep-seated convictions, countries always run better with balance and moderation...

Personal opinion. Even being very conservative I heartily disagree with many conservative bloggers at the moment--some of them are suffering from BDS as well, but things will even out (as the pendulum swings), and I think in about six months they'll be more willing to be looking forward rather than play the blame game.

But it really did matter to me. And for the first time in fourteen years, I voted in an off year election, and it won't be my last.

By the way, other than to be with families again, MOST troops don't want to be brought home before the job is done. And contrary to what the press is saying NOW that the Dems are in power, the job is NOT done.

Good thoughts!

Anonymous said...

I meant that your thoughts were good, not mine...I have no idea if mine are, although being that I believe them, personally I think they are spot on!

;) Heh heh. Time will tell.

le Duc said...

I agree with you, Stephanie. I felt, however, that we were going to get our come-uppance, and would rather have it happen now so we can regroup and win in '08. The alternative, as I saw it, was to lose big in '08, and that would have major repercussions.

Anonymous said...

There is that. A train wreck no matter which track we take, but this one we might be able to recover from in a few years when it really counts? Probably...we do better when we've had a wilderness to walk through. I just didn't want either one of the train wrecks on my conscience, especially when I have a direct stake in some of the "bets"! :) However, it's a relief that it's over and now we can work back to our conservative standards (or congressional Republicans can, we haven't left ours, I don't think!!!)