I have now seen 67,932 McCain/Palin roadside signs and only 13,376 Obama/Biden signs, so it is now perfectly clear to me that the McCain/Palin ticket deserves my vote. I mean whoever's supporters are willing to deforest the largest area are clearly the most qualified for the job.
Perhaps I'm missing the point (which is not entirely unheard of for me), but I don't understand the need for so many political signs in people's yards. Is it to simply show their support for their candidate? Is it to try to convince me and other people driving by that I should vote for their candidate? I need help with this.
IF I support a candidate should I put up a sign? IF I'm passionate should I put up thirty signs? IF my neighbor puts up the opponent's sign do I have to top him? WHERE do I get my Undecided 2008 sign, or my Fed Up With This Crap sign?
Does anyone really decide who they're going to vote for because of these signs? And if so should that person really be allowed to vote? I mean if it's going to be decided like that lets just flip a coin and get this over with now.
At least these silly automated phone calls by the Republicans say something ( you know the ones: "Obama is a terrorist and he and his left-wing cohorts will eat your children if you don't vote for McCain.") . These signs just have a name or two on them. That's it. That's all you need to know. If you can't decide which is the right team to lead this country by reading their names over and over and over and over and over and over again on your way to work and home again then there isn't much hope for you.
I guess it's just that I'm disappointed in the American people. We have the chance, I mean the right, I mean the privilege to govern ourselves, and most of us don't bother to learn enough about the issues to make an educated decision.
One thing that is encouraging this year is the number of registered voters. Virginia, according to a recent poll, has just over 5 million registered voters (the highest number ever). According to census information (which only offers estimates since the last census was a few years ago) there are only 6.2 million people of voting age in this state. Lets see how many of us actually vote though and who we vote for.
I read somewhere that in the last election roughly 50% of Americans over 18 actually voted, but that almost 85% of registered voters actually voted. I'm not sure about those numbers, but why wouldn't 100% of registered voters vote? Why aren't more Americans registered to vote? Even if these numbers are off (which I don't doubt that they are) why do so many of us not even vote? Is it because some people, like me, feel that neither major party has anything new or good to offer this country? Is it because people are fed up with the negative campaign politics? When was the last time a candidate bothered to say anything good about him/herself? I guess if you don't have a good point to make about yourself you should take a shot at vilifying the other guy.
Sometimes I feel like I can't see the point of all of this anymore.
Sometimes I feel like it doesn't even matter.
Maybe we should just toss a coin.
-Ward
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