The Primaries -- Has the Tide Turned?

Today’s big news is the results of yesterday’s primaries. “Super Tuesday” turned out to be aptly named. It was super in terms of the turnout, at least, and perhaps in come other significant ways. I worked the polls as a poll judge at a site with 1,470 registered voters of whom 703 turned out to vote in spite of some pretty vicious weather. I was told that his precinct had turned out as few as 32 voters in previous elections, so this 48% turnout was really exceptional.

The national results were not terribly surprising what with Hillary and Obama registering an even split across the country while John McCain and Mitt Romney did the same. You’ve got wonder what the results would have looked like vis-à-vis the last two, though, if Huckabee wasn’t still in the race. Would Romney really pick up the vast majority of Huck’s voters as he claims he would? The very thought makes me shudder, but then so does the thought that it is even remotely possible that a man like McCain, who still thinks we should have won in Vietnam and could still win in Iraq and who has stated his willingness to remain in Iraq for 100 or even 1000 more years could be elected our next president. Which would be worse, a man who wants to stay in Iraq like McCain or a man who wants to stay in Iraq AND return the country to the glories(!?!?) of the Reagan years like Romney?

The main question in my mind about the Republican side is how so many people can remain loyal to that party in light of the way they have turned America inside out over the last eight years. A great many Republicans say they do not like the way BushCo has operated, but continue to support the GOP as though they weren’t involved.

My disgust with politics has been greatly enhanced over the past eight years because the Republicans failed to withdraw their support for BushCo while the Democrats failed to stand up and declare opposition to those policies. In my view that makes both parties enemies of the state. (The state being the people.) Of course I am an anachronism in that I still believe the state exists at the will of the people and should, as Lincoln declared, be operated by the people, of the people and for the people.

The only reason I can stomach voting for the Demorats is that they still operate with more of an eye toward the needs of the common man than the Repulsicans ever have. (That and the fact that there is no other choice except to throw your vote away!)

Beyond all that, though, my experience at the polls yesterday disturbed me in more personal ways. I was heartened by the numbers that turned out to vote. I think the combined electronic and paper ballot system in place in Greene County is the best and least manipulable option going, so I believe in the accuracy of the vote. I was also heartened by the faith the voters put into the system and the many expressions of gratitude we received from them for our work.

As a liberal, I was disheartened, though, by the great number – among them a lot of first time voters(!)-- who requested Republican ballots. It is so hard for me to understand why they don’t feel the same revulsion I do for the way that party has undercut their freedoms and risked – through its continued support for BushCo policies – the Constitutional governance that has made this country as great as it has been even given its shortcomings. At the same time I was heartened by my feeling that a lot more people than I expected were asking for Democratic Party ballots.

I couldn’t confirm that statistically yesterday, but today’s News-Leader did so by reporting that in Greene County 36,411 people voted Republican while 32,566 voted Democrat. In this heavily Republican territory, I think that speaks volumes for what the turnout will look like nationally in November.

Statewide in Missouri, 797,456 voted Democrat. (49% Obama to 48% Clinton) and 575,078 voted Republican (33% McCain, 32% Huckabee, 29% Romney). I read the other day that Missouri has picked the winner in 38 of the last 39 presidential elections. If that ability holds and voter sentiments don’t change between now and then, there is no doubt that a Democrat will win the Whitehouse in November.

Missouri used to be considered a Democratic state. Could it be that those days are back? Are the people more perceptive than I have given them credit for? Have they quietly decided that the trend the Republican Party has set for the nation over the past forty years has been negative and that it is time to seek a more populist approach to governance?

I’m not a superstitious man, but my fingers and toes are crossed!!


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle