Today is election day in Virginia and, unlike most places in the country, we have some major positions to fill: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and some members of the state legislature.
Even after all the political crap I’ve seen over the years, I still take voting seriously and believe (possibly naively) that elections have consequences. When I go to the polls, I want to be positive and cast my vote FOR someone and their positions, not against someone/something.
Unfortunately, that’s not the situation we’ve been given this year. The candidates I voted for today are hardly inspirational and didn’t run on any particular platform other than trying to define their opponents as scary bad people who will screw up both government and people’s lives.
Except that this time they probably are right.
Based on everything I’ve read, the candidates I voted against have their social and political belief systems firmly rooted in the 1950’s, if not the 1850’s. Old Testament1Â religious concepts prevail over logic, science, and progress. When it comes to my primary area of interest, education, I have no doubt that, given the chance, they would sell off the entire public school system to the highest bidder.
So today I cast my ballot for the names that were not them and hope that next time2, we get some candidates willing to take bold, positive stands on the issues. We can only hope.
1 Sorry, couldn’t help linking that phrase to the Ghostbusters clip. :-)
2 Which will be in four years since Virginia is a very strange political place where the Governor can only serve one four-year term, which means all state planning involves very short term thinking.