I Voted Today

When I woke up today I was all excited because I was going to vote, first time I was to vote early.

I took my morning shower and wore my blue t-shirt with Forward on the front and Obama on the back along with Obama-Biden 2012; I embellished the t-shirt with some buttons mocking Romney and Ryan and got on my way to my precinct.

The precinct is in an affluent area. As I drove into the parking lot with my car full of stickers reflecting my political views, I got a mixed reaction from the people walking by. Some, not that many, gave me a thumbs up, others… well, let’s just say that if looks could kill, I would not be writing this right now.

When I got there the line that was already about two blocks long. Flustering as if moths attracted to the light, there were people from both parties representing almost every candidate in the ballot, providing last minute propaganda as to why you should vote for this or that candidate. I find this to be a waste of time, funds and paper, since at this point in the game most people have already made up their minds, but I guess it’s part of the “tradition”, like movies and popcorn.

There were some angry faces in the group. A tall, black haired woman that was obviously Hispanic (not because of her looks, because she was speaking Spanish) looked extremely upset. Apparently someone had mentioned that president Obama was slightly ahead in the polls. She kept saying that we couldn’t afford four more years of the same. I found her comments outrageous, but decided to keep my mouth shut. I was determined not to give them the pleasure of saying we Liberals or Democrats were not civil… I had resolved to behave and I was going to stick to my guns.

There was an elderly couple behind me. The woman was sporting a t-shirt from a local radio station that I know it’s Republican. We began to talk; they told me that she was a Republican and her husband an Independent. 

Anyway, I was committed to be a civil citizen. To behave as they certainly weren’t expecting from a Democrat, from a Liberal. I smiled all the time that I heard them say all the bullshit they kept repeating and that we all have heard so many times.

Then she touched the economy and how “mighty” Romney will “save” our economy. I allowed her to finish praising the Lord of Kolob and after she had finished her well learned rhetoric, I asked her if I could offer my opinion and of course, she said yes. I said, well more than my opinion I want you to answer one question. If Romney is going to cut the tax rate by 20% across the board (she nodded, very happy), if he is going to give tax cuts to corporations (again, a grim on her face and more nodding) and in top of that he is going to triple the budget of our military, which by the way is the largest budget in the world… Can you explain to me how can Romney get us out of debt if all he has offered as a budget plan is giving money away instead of producing any income? How can he say that he will bring down the deficit when he will have to borrow from that “hateful China” in order to triple the military budget? Her reply stunned me. She said, I know it sounds illogical, but Romney can do it. I told her that it was mathematically impossible and she said that it was not impossible with Romney’s mathematics... I laughed and said: sorry, but numbers are numbers and 2 +2 will never equal 7. She persisted, against all logic, that Romney could do it.

She told me that president Obama had 4 years to take us out of the recession and that during the first two years he had a Democratic Congress and had accomplished nothing. Really? I replied. Let me refresh your memory – I said - first of all we never had the majority in Congress – in case you don’t know it takes 60% to pass anything in Congress and we never had those numbers. She agreed, at least that was good. I continued saying that since day one, Republicans in Congress made it very clear and said publicly that their number one objective was to make of President Obama a one-term president. Again she nodded, agreeing with me. Also, the Republicans in Congress obstructed every single effort presented by the president that would have helped the middle-class and the country to prosper and to my surprise, she agreed with me! I mentioned that the country was in shambles when president Obama took office and that every economist was predicting another depression and that he, against all odds, had stopped this from happening. I asked her if she was going to vote any of those Congressmen out and she said no, that they were doing their “job” and that she agreed with them since President Obama was a Communist and he had to be stopped. I looked at her perplexed and told her: A communist? Nothing could be farther from the truth, he is a centered Democrat and those accusations are completely false! So you are going to reward them by keeping them there. You are going to reward their criminal behavior – she wanted to interrupt me but I didn’t allow her. I said, yes, criminal behavior because while they were getting paid to work for America they were golfing and doing nothing. Criminal because they ignored separation of Church and State and, all the bills that they have created in Congress have mainly been related to abortion and women’s issues, not jobs, not the economy not anything that will help the country move forward but you, you are rewarding them and telling them that their dirty tricks and irresponsible behavior is the way to go.

She looked at me and said, I’m sure that if Romney gets elected Democrats will do the same thing. I was fuming but maintained my composure. Let me remind you – I told her – that when Bush was in power the Democrats never used that tactic and I sure hope that if Romney wins, the Democrats in Congress pay back with the same. She got offended, told me that would be an awful thing to do because what mattered most was the country and not the different political ideals. Oh, so when Republicans do this it’s OK, but if Democrats do it then it is awful? Gosh… No wonder the country is the way it is!

The hypocrisy of these people is beyond reasoning. Their logic is inexistent and there is no way to reason with them. It is because of people like them that this country is going down the drain. It is because of people like them that nothing gets done.

Fortunately enough, it was my turn to vote and I walked away from that cancer that was eroding my self-control... one more second and I would have smacked her!