Categories
politics

2012 election

[Tuesday run: 3.5 miles]

So, we voted yesterday and the results came in and I woke up to an unexpected outcome.

Looking back over my years as a voter, I think I am well under average in being able to predict the outcome of national elections.

But that seems to be a popular problem these days.  The polling people and the established media seem to have been drinking the Kool Aid this time.  I saw an opinion piece that surmised that maybe political correctness is such a force in the country that people really weren’t going to give straight answers about who they would vote for.  That doesn’t seem to slow down a lot of the people I see on Facebook!  But I could imagine there may be a flaw in the way polling turns out if there are a substantial number of folks of one wing who are less likely to participate in polls.

The other thing about the election: I’m wondering if the old-union workforce came out for Clinton the way they used to.

This is the first presidential election where I’ve had to present an ID, since moving to Mississippi.  We had to do that in Colorado.  Anyway, it seemed to be a non-issue.  And that’s nice.  I’m proud of the way voter ID has been implemented in Mississippi.

My own voting was driven first by rejection of Clinton.  And then I had a lesser rejection of Trump.  Trump acts like a buffoon, but he’s never been in elected office so he’s never had the public failures that I attribute to Clinton.  I like having the conservatives run Congress.  And I’d like to see more Clarence Thomas’s in the Supreme Court.  I don’t want to see the Republicans try to run the table with all sorts of goofy stuff for two years.  I didn’t like that with Obamacare and I won’t like it going the other way either.  Unlike the Democrat electorate, I’m not very interested in cheating the system.  So, let’s just say I’ll be happy if there is some friction between Trump and the Congress and within the Congress.  Greased rails for political change is bad, in my opinion.   I had the luxury of not having to vote for Trump, so I checked the box for the “Constitutional Party” guys.  And they’re from Memphis so there’s a bit of regional connection too.

I have had some nice conversations with a man I respect who thinks that Clinton is really an honest, hardworking champion of children and the oppressed.  I think that is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.  But he could be right.  His county went for Clinton.  Maybe she’ll be the next Mother Theresa.  I’d be happy for that just like I’ll be happy if Trump is the next Abe Lincoln.  Let’s just say I’m skeptical.

I was really happy to see that the Democratic senate leader in the state of Iowa, who always blocked a vote on gay marriage, was finally defeated.  It would have cheered me up even more if the remaining rogue Iowa Supreme Court justices would have gotten the boot.