I did something really stupid yesterday.
I went and voted.
No. That wasn’t the stupid part. The stupid part was when I sat down to vote and realized I had NO IDEA who the people on the ballot even were.
I had never heard of them. But here I was, getting ready to vote them into office.
Shame on me!
I think I was so focused on voting for the stupid smoking ban – ON PRIVATE PROPERTY – that I failed to pay attention to the rest of the ballot.
After I voted, I went to my office. When I walked in and told Kevin that I had voted, he was surprised.
“What?? I had planned on talking to you about the people running for office. Have you looked at their websites? Do you even know where they stand on these issues?”
I blushed and shook my head.
And then I felt like a slug.
He had spent an hour looking at the candidates’ websites and when he told me that one dude explicitly claimed that he had “nothing to do with the Tea Party,” and that he was the one I voted for (because I liked his name – I KNOW, I’M SO PATHETIC!!!), I died a little inside.
Shame on me!
To me, when people distance themselves from the Tea Party, that means that they’re for more government and more spending. (Because the Tea Party is for less government and less spending, in case you didn’t know that).
And just so we’re clear? I am NOT FOR BIGGER GOVERNMENT ON ANY LEVEL.
Sorry to shout, but I feel strongly about this.
So yeah, I voted for the dude. *SIGH* Bad Karen.
Then Kevin pointed out another candidate who wouldn’t commit to any sort of opinion, in essence he said he would vote for whatever was popular. Which to ME says, “I’ll do whatever it takes to stay in office.”
My point is … I should have taken the time to look these candidates up before voting for them. I wonder how many people do the same thing? Go in to vote and have no idea who the people are? Who just pick a name out of the hat and vote for him/her.
I know better. I was ill-informed and lazy. If we ALL don’t take the time to research the people we’re voting into office and then things go to crap, we have no one to blame but ourselves because we put them there.
I’m lumping myself into this chastisement.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I voted people into office that if I had done my homework on, would NOT have gotten my vote.
Lesson learned.