I wish people would pay this much attention to local elections, where turnout is usually a dismal 25% - 30%. Local elected officials make decisions that literally affect your wallet. While I am a staunch Democrat, I usually split my vote based on previous voting records of the incumbents and any personal contact I have had with the candidates. Party lines tend to blend together in local elections, but whatever party wins the majority, you can bet your last dollar it will affect you personally.
That said, this is one election where every vote counts. Look at who you want to represent you in Congress. Congress is local. Whoever represents your Congressional district will be voting in the House on your behalf. The Senate is local too. You only have two Senators to represent your State. It matters who you send to the Senate.
The Presidential race is between two very different men; one that can easily articulate what his vision is for the next four years, and one who has yet to articulate anything. Yesterday, if you closed your eyes and listened, you would swear you heard Obama's plan coming out of his opponent's mouth. But as a person who watched every single Republican debate, it was clear that some candidates did have a vision, as nutty as some of their ideas were, they could articulate their reasons for running for the highest office in this country. One man could not and did not articulate much of anything. Now he's running for President.
The men who dropped out early were the only two men who were Republican moderates. One can make the assumption they recognized the 2012 Republican debates were turning into a real life circus and their messages were drowned in a sea of right winged rhetoric and arguments about who really was the most conservative in a bunch of bananas that were rotting away before our very eyes. I will give credit where credit is due: Rick "oops" Perry didn't bite when Romney bet him $10,000 about a line in Romney's book. Perry just looked at him with an incredulous look on his face. Rick Santorum stuck to his guns, not matter how nutty he sounded. Michelle Bachmann did herself in by relating some far fetched idea that a vaccination caused mental retardation. Herman Caine, who no one took seriously anyway, imploded because one claim of sexual harassment turned into several. Ron Paul, in a league of his own, stood true to the Libertarian point of view. You may not like his ideas, but he never wavered or changed his mind about anything. And Newt Gingrich, carrying enough baggage to fill up three debate halls, called out Romney for what he really is - a liar.
Before you vote on Tuesday, think hard about who want to represent you in Congress. Do you want women in binders, or do you want women to continue to have the freedom to make their own choices about the most personal aspects of their lives? Do you want a Congressman who will fight for 100% of Americans or just the few at the top of our economic social structure? Do you want someone who will push away all this noise about rape, abortion and contraceptive issues or one who will embrace it as the Most Important Issues our country faces? Your vote for the Senate could be a vote for more gridlock in Washington, or it could be a vote for someone who actually wants to get back to business.
The President of 2013 will set policy for the next four years. It can be a policy of a steady course guided by a cool head, thoughtful and sustainable goals, or it could be the "trust me" policy. You decide. Me, I'm sticking with the Black man in the White House.
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