Anyone who grows up in a territory of the United States learns about voting locally. We have some great political contests, full of fish fries, loud music, huge signs all over the island and lots of melee. We watch the antics here and on the mainland wishing we could vote for President but not being allowed to even though we are citizens of the United States. This has been a bone of contention for many years.
Anyway when one of our young moves off island to look for new jobs or head to school, they register to vote in what ever state they end up in. These kids are bright and look upon voting as a real important part of their allegiance to their country.
Today, I received this missive from a new working voter, learning the ropes in the states. I asked if I could publish it here as long as the writers name remained anonymous. This is a small place as you can understand.
So I am trying to take my first time voting "on the continent" very
seriously. I want to be an informed voter and make sure the people I
pick are worth my time. Also after so many years of bemoaning voter
apathy and people who don't even bother to participate in the process
I didn't want to be the pot calling the kettle black! Actually I've
always liked Australia's stance on voting, either you vote and
actually participate in your democratic government or you pay a fine.
Anyway- there was a governor's debate last night on TV and mostly it
made me not want to vote for any of them :(
The woman who is running on the Green party ticket is totally off her
rocker and seems to have no idea whatsoever about how simple math
works or how jobs are created. When asked which of her initiatives
would foster jobs growth she cited her desire to add bike lanes to
public highways and build a wind farm in the Berkshires.....she also
wants to eliminate tax breaks and other incentives for new businesses
that open in the state.....I'm pretty sure that means fewer new jobs
created, not more.....
The Independent candidate wants to reinstate the death penalty and
thinks that school standardized testing is ruining our education
system and not a fair metric of progress.......he's also one of the
guys that was very involved in the Big Dig going over budget by
several billion dollars yet says he is fiscally conservative and we
need to slash state spending......oh and he thinks state employees
should have pensions but they should not be funded by tax payer
dollars, where the state gets money seems to be a mystery to him....or
maybe he will fund pensions with the lottery? I kind of agree state
employees shouldn't get pensions, no one in private sector practice
gets a defined benefit plan anymore either, put some money in your
IRA/401(k) like the rest of us have to!
The Republican wants to slash taxes on alcohol, raise public
transportation fares, and divert money from the state health care and
pension funds to renovate the shut down nuclear plant in Plymouth
(which was shut down because it is a relic from the 1950s and needs so
much maintenance to make it safe and efficient to operate that you may
as well just build a new state of the art plant, it would be
cheaper)....he also thinks connecting our grid to Canada's so we can
buy electricity from the hydroelectric dams in Quebec is a better idea
than building the wind farm on the Cape. He may have a point there
actually.....
The Democratic incumbent is living in a bubble and thinks he did a
great job the last 4 years, he seems to have no plans to change
direction or any substantive ways to reduce the state deficit of $2B.
(Though his argument that governments need to do deficit spending in a
recession to replace the lack of private sector spending is actually
sound economic theory, it just doesn't fly very well with voters
right now).
So with those winning choices I have decided that I'm just going to
vote for the cute one, Deval Patrick, Democratic Incumbent Governor,
you get my vote buddy, don't let me down!