Sherry Chandler » The sanctity of the vote
The sanctity of the vote
This morning I stopped at my usual Swifty to pay 50 low-value dollars to fill the tank of my 1997 Camry. It’s a nickel discount for cash at Swifty, and as I handed my two-twenties-and-a-ten to the attendant, a rosy-cheeked white-haired man who is at those pumps in all weathers, I noticed that he had an “I Voted” sticker on his padded flannel shirt.
“Ah,” says I, “you voted. Good for you. I voted, too.”
“I haven’t missed an election since I was 21,” he replied. And, after a pause, “Of course, that’s just typical of old people. We’re reliable. We vote.”
Most in those years when the station attendant and I were young had to be 21 to vote, though at 18 a boy could fight in Korea or Viet Nam. The 26th Amendment to the Constitution rectified that inequity. My grandmother had two children before she had the right to vote. My mother was born without the right to vote. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution rectifed that. The 15th amendment gave suffrage to black males. (paragraph edited for factual inaccuracies.)
Voting is important to us old people. We remember those who did not have the right. We hold our right to vote sacred and we consider it our sacred duty to vote.
This gas-station conversation and Koshembos’s comment have given me a focus for some things I’ve been wanting to say here. It has to do with why I’ve become so obsessive about this election campaign. It’s probably going to be repetitive and it will no doubt be long, so I hope you’ll hang in there with me.
Though I have been hard on Barack Obama on these pages, I don’t consider myself his enemy or even an adamant opponent.
I have been proud to call myself a bleeding-heart liberal and a card-carrying member of the ACLU. I registered Democratic in 1963 because my Daddy told me I’d better do that if I wanted my vote to have any power in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. (I was thinking of registering Independent, but Independents can’t vote in our closed primaries.) I have been a loyal Democrat ever since, though I have voted once or twice for a Republican.
When this primary started, I would have been proud to vote for Obama and I had doubts about a Clinton dynasty (though never about Hillary Clinton, whom I have admired for going on two decades). As the race continued, I became more doubtful of Obama. I could still be persuaded to vote for him but I want something for my vote. That’s the way the system works. You vote for the candidate who is going to work for you.
I want the man to stop running as a Republican. I want him to take a strong stance against the character assassination, sexism, and misogyny that has characterized this primary race as Hillary Clinton has spoken out against any hint of racism. And most importantly, I want him to honor my vote.
If, as has been argued (most articulately by Anglachel), the DNC wants to use this year when a Democrat seems to be a shoo-in to develop a strategy that wins the presidential election without having to court the racist South, that’s fine with me. As a liberal white Southerner, I’m not eager to see the worst of my region exploited for electoral gain, though I do get my back up at the vitriol heaped upon our poor benighted redneck heads. But I would like this strategy to elect a Democrat, not a Republican in sheep’s clothing. If you aren’t going to elect a Democrat, what’s the point????
Who do I call a Democrat? Some one who looks out for the poor, the ill, the elderly, the working class, minorities. Some one who cares about education and the environment.
The problem with throwing out the South as Anglachel points out is that you also throw out the working class who make up what you might call the Appalachian diaspora. This, I think, used to be called the Democratic base, a large chunk of it anyway.
Still, I could be persuaded to vote for Barack Obama. When I look at John McCain and his promises of four more years of Bush policies, I could be persuaded.
BUT
I do not want him foisted upon me by a party elite, the media, and the blogs.
Frankly, I don’t trust them. I trust my fellow citizens, especially the ones who vote.
If I am convinced that Obama has seized the nomination without letting the process work — and I mean really work, not some cosmetic sort of let-Hillary-quit-with-dignity bullsh1t — if I am convinced that Obama and his supporters in the DNC have somehow gamed the system, then I will not be able to cast my vote for him.
Barack Obama is the Democratic candidate for president when the Democratic National Convention names him such and not before. He cannot declare himself the winner.
We were appointed a president by coup d’état, middle-class Republican riot, and patriarchal fiat in 2000 and I was furious. At the time, the news media congratulated us for sitting quiet for our coup, for recognizing “the rule of law” and not taking to the streets. Myself, I thought a little taking-to-the-streets was in order. It was Founding Father Jefferson, after all, who said “God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.”
Voters have indicated in poll after poll that they want this primary contest to continue to its logical end. Me and the gas-station attendant and the poll worker I talked about yesterday, we want to have our say. Kentucky Democrats showed up yesterday at 43%, while only 19% of Republicans voted. This electorate is not ready to have a nominee chosen for them.*
But it seems to me that the Democrats have internalized the worst of the Rove/Bush worldview and they are using it to attack one of our own.
I will not enable such tactics with my vote.
__________
And here.
__________
*Kentucky’s voters are old and poor and rural and we have a paltry 8 electoral votes, but if Al Gore had won Kentucky in 2000, the way Bill Clinton did in 1992 & 1996, he wouldn’t have needed Florida.
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6 Comments
1. koshembos replies at 21st May 2008, 4:45 pm :
In the beginning, I send Obama some money. New face, enthusiasm and a belief that he is a Democrat translated into “”he deserves a chance. Boy, was I disappointed. And it didn’t take long, as early as August/September last year the main reasons were out. No health care, privatization of SS, Reagan is great, Bill is the pits, etc.
Change and hope, for me, are hoping that someone will buy the emptiness of Change.
Later the big plan started to unveil. New coalition where blue collars are replaced by educated middle class, minorities except AA are excluded the young stay (we know that that quality passes fast). Then taking over of Democratic organization by Obama’s “hypercompetent” infrastructure (see Kentucky) and finally, Obama allows only one voice, his own; every 527 or semi independent group should just shut up.
Sorry, but that is downright scary; this is what dictators do. I cannot vote for a person such as Obama.
2. Rebecca Clayton replies at 21st May 2008, 5:28 pm :
Tell it! You’ve explained my reaction to all this much better than I’ve been able to. As the TV news does its premature postmortem on the primary, I’m getting more and more angry. They dismissed West Virginia’s voters as racist rednecks; now Kentucky is getting similar contempt, although they’re emphasizing Appalachian poverty more for you-all. (I think I like our treatment a little better–we seem more scary and less pathetic. Ought to discourage some retirement home buyers….)
I always tell myself that it’s the local, state, and congressional races that matter most, but this time, I’m getting riled about the presidential race. I really want to see the political commentators and the condescending Obama supporters eat crow.
3. Max replies at 22nd May 2008, 7:16 am :
Ditto Sherry’s description of the view of the Democratic Government. Bama hasn’t even offered the working class anything, didn’t even stop by to campaign. I am now not alarmed why all the counties don’t support him, the Dem’s can’t get it in their head they need working class people. With him on the ticket, I believe the election map will look like it did for the last 2 elections. Dem’s only carrying the Big Cities, I’m not morally or ethically in tune with them running the country in that mold.
With that Bama has not earned my vote, but likely won’t get it.
I do support the Dem’s in Virginia where I vote. In particular Mark Warner.
No need for Ben Chandler to run for office outside of Lexington.
4. sherry replies at 22nd May 2008, 11:03 am :
Anglachel, what would I do without Anglachel, is excellent on this subject this morning. She gets it right: Legitimacy, not Unity
Read all of this excellent post.
I like her take on Machiavelli, too. He really isn’t what popular opinion makes him. It’s why his writing has endured.
5. sherry replies at 22nd May 2008, 12:13 pm :
Also recommended reading, this diary by andgarden
6. sherry replies at 23rd May 2008, 11:11 am :
Max, I was puzzled by Ben Chandler’s endorsement of Obama and by its timing. Like that of Robert Byrd of West Virginia and, for that matter, Bill Richardson, it seems part a pattern of hauling out these superdelegates just before Obama is about to sustain a primary loss, so it’s a way to game a loss with the constant drumbeat Clinton can’t win. I understand what Obama gains by it but I don’t know what Chandler gains by taking a stance so at odds with that of his constituency. I’d guess money.
Here’s the text of a letter I wrote to Chandler. I have yet to receive a reply:
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