The other afternoon I received my early voting ballot in the mail. I was eager to receive it. On November 6th they'll run my ballot through the scanner and I will have taken a stake in our nation's future. On that day I am as powerful as Barack Obama or Mitt Romney or George Clooney. And every time I mark that ballot I think back on my 22 years of military service and know that I had some small role in insuring Americans can still go to the polls and exercise their free choices.
So, I sat down with my ballot and voting materials. I reviewed all the local and state propositions, as well as the resumes of the listed candidates. As I sat there at the kitchen table I remembered Nancy Pelosi holding that huge phallic gavel and smirked as she rammed Obamacare down our throats. I remember seeing the Republicans in Congress rebuffed as they tried to have some small say in that 2,300 page Obamacare bill, only be told by Obama to "go to hell, elections have consequences...you lost so screw off!". I remember Democrats having orgasms over that $787 billion dollar pork stimulus bill that created a couple of thousand jobs at $459,000 dollars per job.
As I looked at the list of Presidential candidates the militant and angry tones of an Obama promoting class and race warfare rang in my ears. The recent memory of Obama speaking in "ebonics" to a group of the NAACP and literally oozing hate for "Whitey" came to mind. And, in my mind's eye, I saw Joe Biden's smirks and snorks and giggles and eye-rolling as he bullied his way through that Vice Presidential debate....yes I remembered. And I remembered all the liberal spin doctors who tried to make me believe that 2 +2 =3. I remembered Obama rewarding those who made lousy house buying decisions while I made the right one and kept paying my mortgage. I remembered Cash for Clunkers and a couple of dozen wasteful government programs that did nothing to improve our economy. I remembered the $90 billion dollars that went to Solar company executives who donated to Obama's campaign, and it all went into bankruptcy. I remembered Obama standing in front of the Egyptian Parliament and saying America was no more "special" than any other country, and having my heart broken that we have spent tens of trillions of dollars educating, medicating and feeding most of the world at one time another. I remembered acres of American crosses across the green fields of France and yet "America was not special". I remember that Obama's first reaction to the murder of our diplomatic staff in Libya was an apology to Muslims.
Being a good citizen, I have faithfully followed national events and I have heard Obama voice the same tired platitudes over the course of 1,569 speeches. I remember Obama denigrating middle America as "freaks who cling to their guns and their bibles". Now that we have had him for four years I've had the time to hear Obama's speech in Harvard Square castigating capitalism and "Whitey". I've seen how Obama refuses to take a leadership role and absolves himself of all responsibility for anything that's happened on his watch. I saw him cede leadership to Reid and Pelosi for legislative action. The name "Bush" has been used more in Obama's term than it was ever uttered in Bush's two terms combined, as Obama attempts to cast the blame on someone else.
I've listened carefully, and waited patiently for Obama to explain how and when he was going to stop spending more than a trillion dollars more than we take in every year. I've parsed his web site to see how he intends to fix entitlements but only see cooing words of "it'll all work out". I've watched as Obama sat back and watched his party in the Senate fail to even bring a budget to a vote for over three years running.
Yes, I've watched and listened and waited. And now it is my time to have "my say". Thank God for that. It's sad that 50% of my fellow Americans will not vote. They say one vote doesn't matter. They just can't understand that, for one day, they are "CEO"; the boss, and the cumulative effect of all those votes have real meaning, for ourselves as well as our children and grandchildren.
So, I sat at my kitchen table, and marked my ballot, signed it and sealed it and took it personally to the post office. If I die between now and November 6th my vote still counts. Unlike, so many who have grown hardened by politics, and apathetic about our nation's problems, I have honored all those who gave their lives for my right to vote, and honored our founding fathers who established a government by and for the people.
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