Voting Day 2010

I don’t vote in every election that comes up. But I do think that I tend to vote every other year. Which is more than most Americans. Most Americans tend to limit themselves to just presidential elections. But on the other even years, there are usually some pretty important elections in there to do as well. For instance, in Wisconsin we have a highly contested Governor and Senate race, both of which seem to be really close.

It isn’t hard for me to decide exactly who I am voting for with those two particular positions. Russ Feingold to me is one of the few people in the Senate worth voting for and has consistently proven that he actually reads bills that he votes on.[1. He was one of only 2 Senators who voted against the Patriot act which IMHO was one of the worse pieces of legislation to come out in the last decade and many other senators have since voiced their regret in that decision.] Tom Barrett I am voting solely for the fact that he stepped in when a woman was being beaten and got his jaw broke. I realize this isn’t exactly the best reason to vote for someone, but it is proof positive that he wants to do the right thing even if it means personal harm to him, and I can’t imagine ANY big politician doing that ever. Well he did it, he gets my vote. That to me is the definition of what a politician should do in that situation.

Obviously I do have liberal tendencies, but the thing is there are a bunch of issues in which I feel that I do lean more conservative. For instance, I actually don’t mind the death penalty though I agree it has caveats that make it not the greatest method, I don’t mind it. There are a few more issues that I lean that way too, but overall I tend to be liberal. What this means is that I will fully consider conservative politicians for various offices.

The thing is though, these politicians must first prove their sanity to me, otherwise I will default Liberal. More often than not, the republicans prove their insanity to me and thus lately I have tended to lean more liberal than I actually am.

So I had the few bigger names that I was absolutely sure that I was going to vote. But a lot of the smaller positions I was open. For instance, Secretary of State or Sheriff. These are up for debate in my mind. Before I voted, I decided I wanted to go to the websites of these guys and see what they are about. Now I totally realize that these sites are only going to slant these guys to the good things, basically being campaign promises and what not, but I figure if they can’t sell me here to make me even consider them, then it isn’t worth looking further.

One thing in particular that I got from a lot of the candidates sites is that a lot are going after two big issues (I only mostly looked at Republicans, as I’ve said they have to prove their sanity to me, Democrats get a bit more of a break there, the Dem may not be sane either but at least they aren’t an insane Republican). These issues are fairly obvious this term…

1) Lower the amount of spending by the government. Many complain that government spending  has gone through the roof the last few years and it needs to stop.

2) Get new jobs.

I find this funny because generally the two are correlated. The government spends more, and in so doing creates jobs. In fact, this is very similar to how business works. If you want to make more money, you spend less money, which means fewer jobs and this is precisely where business is currently at. The last few years, government has been stepping in by spending more in order to create jobs in a down economy. In fact, government is the only real source of job growth within this country and if you want to get rid of that source, the economy only gets worse, not better.

So herein lies the insanity of the Republican party. I’ve even heard some Republican (not from this state) state that government cannot create sustainable jobs. If you say so Mr. Government employed politician. I suppose you would know, being in a job sustained by the government. My inclination is to fire that employee, too bad I don’t get the choice.

There is one Republican that I thought ok to vote for after looking through everyone’s votes and I think he got my vote… and that is the guy who is running for Sheriff of Dane County. Ironically, this is a position I don’t even think should be one that Republicans or Democrats should be allowed to vote in, nor do I think people should be voting for that type of position anyway.

As for secondary bills in this vote. I am voting for legalization of Medical Marijuana and I’m still torn on giving more money to MATC. I think this is a tough time right now to ask for more money, though MATC needs it and would put it to good use in a time that really going and getting more competent work force would be helpful. Still they are asking for a lot. I don’t know.

At any rate, I hope that everyone gets out and votes today. Even if it is for a mid-term election.