Monday morning, the day would dawn clear & bright—not something we’ve seen much here in St. Paul of late—‘though we’d still be hard-pressed to rival Seattle in cloudy days, but as I ambled to the coffee shop, it was still quite dark, the stars obscured by the streetlights.
Medford (the techno-geezer), and Carl (the old sergeant) were already at the usual table, you know the one by the front plate-glass window, deeply engaged in conversation.
“…I just haven’t made up my mind who I’m gonna vote for this year,” Carl was saying as I walked up with my usual cup of shade-grown, free-trade, unadulterated (no cream or sugar) French-Roast coffee, “the two major party candidates are telling me what they think I want to hear, the Independence party guy makes some sense to me, but if I vote for him, it will likely result in the least appealing of the major party guy’s being elected.”
“Yeah, I know,” Medford said stirring cream into his coffee, “four years ago I voted for the third party guy—and you know who won”
“But, Med,” I said, with a wide grin, “he was your party’s guy.”
“Look Jay,” Med replied, “He’s a nice guy, I’ve met him a time or two, but his single-minded no new taxes pledge has really hurt us, locally”.
“Now,” Carl added, “he says he wants to place a cap on local government’s ability to raise revenue, that after cutting LGA (local government aid) money to municipalities.”
“That is not consistent with the position of conservatives—that such decisions should be made by the local governments, and not be imposed from above.” Medford replied.
“Still,” I added, “Tim’s been a great promoter of Minnesota, both nationally and internationally, and that has helped our business community. I have to admit, I don’t know who I’m voting for yet.”
“You’re right about that, Jay,” Carl said, “he has done a very good job in that area, but I still don’t know how I’m going to vote. One thing I know for certain—come election day, I’m gonna vote for one of these guys.”
“Me too,” Med said, “it’s our job to learn all we can about each candidate, and not from campaign ads—I don’t pay any attention to them, there’s plenty of relatively unbiased information out there on all the candidates. When I hit the voting booth next Tuesday, I’ll know who I’m voting for, and why.”
“Amen,” I concluded, “participation in this democracy is not easy, but it is important. I never miss the opportunity to make my voice heard.”
“I hear you loud & clear Jay,” said the old sergeant, and then looking out the plate-glass window, at you, that’s right,
you the gentle reader,
"Do you?”
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I vote every year. In my area, the AD money is spent in the last couple of weeks before election day and no one really knows the candidates or issues until then. I wish the Newspapers would get ALL the candidate views, on paper, for comparison and distributed. I'm tired of ads and commercials that mudsling.