election selections

[mamajoan]

Election day today really snuck up on me. I've been getting reams and reams (or so it has seemed) of candidate flyers stuck in my mailbox, and I've glanced at a few of them, but mostly ignored them because I figured they wouldn't really tell me anything meaningful about the candidates. (He believes in families and responsibility! Woo!) I figured at some point I would go online and check some newspapers and talk to people, get informed, and know whom to vote for.

But then suddenly it was yesterday, last night, night before the elections, and I was still clueless. Oops. So I called a couple of friends and asked them whom to vote for, and then this morning I voted for the people they told me to.

I feel a bit unhappy with this, because in principle I don't believe in letting others tell you how to vote, whether those others are your mom, your best friend, your priest/rabbi/minister/shamaness, your political party, or an organization you believe in. In general I feel that voting while uninformed is as bad as, and sometimes even worse than, not voting at all.

But at the same time, voting is important, and I have the utmost confidence that the people I called last night have the same politics as me, and thus that if I *had* done the research, I still would have ended up voting the same way, because I would have agreed with their recommendations. (And they *did* tell me a bit about each candidate they recommended; it's not like they just said "vote for X and Y.")

Isaac, of course, came to the polling place with me this morning and had another opportunity to observe the whole voting process. (He really likes helping to feed the ballot into the machine.) And it hit me that I really do want to get more involved in local politics, for his sake, because it's important and I want him to know how important it is. Since moving to Somerville I haven't learned anything about the town's government, feeling very out of my depth after so many years in Cambridge, where half of the city movers-and-shakers remember me since before I had boobs and where I feel totally at home with the politics. But Somerville is very different and I'm clueless. I don't even really know what the hell an alderman is, although I'm guessing it's similar to a city councillor.

I was rather older than Isaac is now (and my brother was rather older than Cosmo is now) when my mom started really getting into Cambridge politics. But I imagine she was involved in things long before I became conscious of it, certainly long before she actually ran for school committee the first time; she undoubtedly had educated herself about how the city worked -- both formally and informally -- and who the significant people were and what the significant issues were. And that seems like something I can probably get a start on doing now, even though I don't have a lot of time or energy (or, it often seems, brainpower).

Of course, I talk a good game and who knows what'll actually happen, but it does feel very important to me to get involved early, for Isaac's sake, and also for my own so I won't feel so clueless and guilty next election day.

Comments

[skreeky]

Yeh, it's hard enough to find info on the candidates in Boston proper. The Globe finally popped out a section with brief info yesterday, which I read... and I'm still not sure who doesn't suck and who's good, and who's really bad. Susie believes we should do X for the schools and Joey believes we should do Y. Well, which is better, X or Y? I have no idea. I don't know if X would work, or Y would work, or if we have no money and both are pipe dreams. So even after learning their positions on schools and roads and parks and unions and crime and etc etc etc... I still don't really know and I'm left voting for whoever's bio sounds least assholey.

[woobiewoobster.livejournal.com]

I applaud you for allowing/involving Isaac in your voting no matter his young age. You might be shocked to know of parents who don't involve their kids in the process and don't bother to share their reasoning for the way they vote. Whenever possible I have Aidan come with me to the polls to show him that 1. I do vote and 2. how I vote and why---even if its a small ballott issue, I think its important.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I haven't bothered explaining to Isaac why I vote the way I do, yet, but certainly next time I will. And yeah, I do think it's sad that so many parents don't involve their kids in the whole process. I think it's so important from a very early age for kids to see voting as a part of life but also to understand what a big deal it is.

[mogwar.livejournal.com]

Last year (first grade) kidlet's school had a mock election where the kids got to vote for a Presidential candidate, which was kind of cool. This year, I guess they felt the need to redo the experience, so they're having a mock election for the Detroit mayoral race. Interesting, but not all of us (including me) are residents of Detroit. I'll be interested to see in who kidlet votes for, considering we've never discussed this race (unsurprisingly, last year he voted for Kerry because we talked about it a lot, and there was a Kerry sign in our front yard). And what particularly amuses me is that most parents at that school seem to favor the challenger, but the incumbent's children attended the school last year, and were friends with many of the kids there. I guess I'll find out when I pick up kidlet who "won".

[orbitalmechanic.livejournal.com]

If you can prepare yourself for some almost tabloid-level writing, the Somerville Journal is a pretty good source for what's on the city's mind lately. It's kind of terrible, but it did have a rundown on candidates recently and it keeps tabs on a lot of local issues and I've learned some interesting things.