Election Eve

Hey, folks. My first post here on the horizon. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Myke and I live in the deep south of the U.S. South Carolina to be exact. The heart of conservative Republican politics. It is so heavily conservative here that neither candidate for our national election tomorrow for President bothered to campaign here. It is simply expected that our Electoral College votes will easily go to Mr. Bush. Personally, I'm not registered with any political party and have always considered myself a centrist ideologically. I have liberal leanings on the environment, equal rights, and some social programs and am actually quite conservative fiscally and have been hawkish, frankly speaking, on my issues when it comes to military matters. For the most part, this combines to make me a moderate in the mold of someone such as Joe Biden on the Democratic side of the aisle or Rudy Giuliani on the Republican side. If someone of my mode of thought lived in a state such as Ohio, Michigan, or perhaps New Mexico, each side would have been prying for my vote, thus making me feel oh so special. It makes a guy wonder, why bother? Won't my vote being cast in this state be simply thrown to the wind? I could take that tact I suppose but I really do feel like it's my civic duty to cast my vote. Perhaps that's an old fashioned way to look at it but I also hold to the cliche' that voting gives me a right to criticize and challenge the government no matter who wins. Also, there are quite a few local and state elections that could more directly affect my life including the open Senate seat that is being vacated by retiring Democrat Ernest Hollings. Perhaps my vote will be able to help keep at least one of our Senate seats in Democratic hands. I don't know. I have enough optimism to want to vote and to believe that it actually matters. Regardless of what you think of any administration, past or present, in U.S. politics, one thing is always rather marvelous to watch ... the peaceful transfer of power every few years between wildly divergent ideologically based politicians. No military interventions. No coup de'tat. No riots in the streets of major metropolises. I've seen it in my lifetime from Carter to Reagan. Then from Bush I to Clinton and later from Clinton to Bush II. That, if nothing else, says something for a stable representative republic. Soo ... I'll continue to vote. Perhaps one day we'll see the antiquated Electoral College system (which was brilliant for it's day) disbanded in favor of direct popular vote. In this day of rapid, mass communication, it certainly would make sense.