[LEMONS] 6.24.2003
The Great American Restoration
I was thinking of watching Howard Dean's speech yesterday, but a friend came in from out of town (one half of the hoorays, actually) and we didn't make it. Thankfully, the text of his speech is online.I love to vote. Voting is absolutely one of my favorite things to do. I vote whenever possible. Ballot initiatives. Runoffs. School boards. You name it, I'm there. I take the process seriously, too. I read every page of the tomes that come in the mail explaining the various ballot measures. I look into candidates voting histories. I'm passionate.
Yet I've never found myself anything but flummoxed by Presidential elections. Largely because I've never felt there was a candidate, with a realistic chance of winning, who represented me. Actually, I've never even felt like there was a candidate with a realistic chance of winning who represented anyone other than Boeing, Bechtel, and Chevron. And so I've voted for a long string of third-party losers. Lunatics and dimwits. Conspiracy freaks and confidence men. Watch-stealers and mouth-breathers. And of course, Ralph Nader.
Although I've never viewed what I've done as protest voting, the thought "well I'm not going to waste my vote on either one of those two jackasses" does tend to transverse the cranium as I've looked down at the Democrats and Republicans listed on my ticket. Screw you guys. If I wanted to vote for Jack Welch, I'd have bought stock in GE.
Now, the "anyone but Bush" sentiment certainly appeals to me. Sure, he's the worst President since, well, ever. Sure his foreign policy is the moral equivalent of "give me your lunch money or else." Sure, he's awful, he's an embarrassment, he's thuggish, he's fascist, and quite possibly some sort of simian hitherto unidentified. Get him out of here. But is it too much to ask that we replace him with somebody who's actually good instead of just less bad?
Howard Dean is someone I feel like I can believe in. Somebody I can vote for with pride and confidence. A patriot and a statesman. And yet a member of the two-party system. He's a doctor and a twelve-time governor of Vermont. Or maybe two-time. Whichever. He's my boy. He should be yours too.
UPDATE: I almost forgot. If you registered, don't forget to vote in today's MoveOn primary. For the doctor, of course.
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