I Get To Vote Tomorrow and It Won't Matter
I mean go vote. Yeah, if you live in DC, go vote.
Before I complain about my disenfranchisement I would like to note that I am supporting what meager process we are allowed by volunteering at polling places before and after work tomorrow. It is hard to get excited when your party has eviscerated your primary ahead of time making it nothing more than a beauty contest to raise awareness about the sorry state of our nation's capitol.
For those of you not aware, when I moved from IL to DC and got a new (and uglier) drivers license I went from having good ol' Dick Durbin (what a guy) to nobody. I went from having Ray LaHood to having a non-voting member (which is better in a way -- can we make LaHood non-voting?). In fact all five hundred thousand people in the District of Columbia have no voting representation in the body that can veto legislation passed by our elected City Council.
So we do what we can. Our license plates proclaim our suffering with the slogan "Taxation Without Representation," our party tries to hold early primaries, and we try to get candidates to talk about it. In fact this show tomorrow has caused some candidates to proclaim sympathy with out plight. Gore Vidal even got on NPR today to advocate secession.
Perhaps if we turn out to the polls tomorrow it will cause the press to look our way even for a moment and shine a light on a great injustice taking place in our nation's capitol. One of the major urban areas of the nation does not have full voting rights. This is wrong. Even though your votes won't officially count for much, go to the polls if for no other reason than to chance bumping into Sam Felder - Election Volunteer.
1 Comments
Leave a comment
Who is this guy?
Hey, let's have no more of this Dick Durbin bashing. Apparently a certain blogger doesn't remember the Illinois Constituent Breakfast back in April '97 (Personally, I've never forgiven Carol Moseley Braun for her shitty attitude. So stand-offish. Ugh.)
He seemed like a pretty nice guy. I'll vote for him again in 6 years.
But back to the topic at hand. Quit your bitching and move to Virginia or Maryland if you don't like it. Or, stop paying your taxes. Whatever. Allow me to play myself*, I bet you that if there was another city-state type district in this country that would vote Republican, hands-down, in every single election, you'd be more hesitant to start handing out Representatives, Senators, and electoral votes.
*For those who are unfamiliar with my persona, I am the Devil's Advocate.