Keeping our options open until the end
Pub Date: 10/1/2008
By Mark Staples
MTA Government Affairs Counsel
Am I the only one who hasn't made up his mind on the Presidential election?
Everyone I talk to is already 100 percent dead set on either McCain or Obama and say nothing could change their mind.
Then why even bother paying attention to campaigns, conventions, debates, ads, editorials, endorsements, issue papers, interviews, and barnstorming?
They say, "Exactly... Get rid of all that stuff."
I say, isn't part of being a citizen the obligation to gather as much information as you can before you decide for whom to vote? Shouldn't an open mind be a prerequisite for voter registration?
The answer of course from professional electioneers is "no," as their "spinners" work full-time to get you to close your mind and solidify around one ideology or another. They want you to commit as early as possible (at birth preferably) so they know what camp to place you in, can check you off as red or blue, and then move on to the ever smaller group of "undecideds."
Well, doesn't it offend you to be so taken for granted? Don't you want a candidate any candidate to respect your vote rather than assume it?
I can't understand "Yellow Dog" Democrats or Republicans (they claim, "I'd rather vote for an old yellow dog than the other party"). In my mind, Yellow Dogs have basically said to the parties, "I'm yours, no matter whatever you do to me or don't do for me...I'm yours."
In other words, "Whip Me, Beat Me, Make Me Cast Bad Votes."
To make things worse, some 40 percent of the country is now expected and encouraged by the "pros" to vote via mail-in ballots up to a month or more before the election. Before we've even had a debate between the candidates?
For mercy's sake, who orders for you at a restaurant, the busboy? Why go inside? Why check the menu? Just have the busboy order you a PB & J and eat it in your car!
I refuse to let "consultants" pigeon-hole me. The campaign's final contentious weeks tell me an enormous amount about each candidate's stamina, follow-through, executive abilities, statesmanship, temperment, leadership, adaptability and the company he or she keeps. I want to see these folks under fire.
I want every scrap of information I can get before I decide who will have the power for the next four years to run every federal agency, make friends or enemies of the world for me, appoint Supreme Court Justices, set the Congressional agenda, craft the federal budget, and not least of all command the armed forces and send the country to wars (or keep them out of them).
I'm not leaving my decision to party hacks, pollsters, or media pundits.
I'm making up my own mind, thank you, and I have a month left to do it, so the election "experts" can stick this in their "projections" and smoke it:
I will in fact firmly commit to one candidate, but I'll do it when I walk into the voting hutch and mark my ballot...and not one damn second before.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, October, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.