The Morning After

Well, the people have spoken. At least some of them. I don't yet know what the voter turnout was for this election, but I'm sure we'll once again fall far short of other nations.

In any case, it seems to be bad news in general. I'm speaking of one party gaining control of the House, Senate, and the Presidency. This would be bad no matter what the political party. I'm not too worried, yet. But it does bode ill for the future, in my opinion.

Locally, transportation issues were again drowned out by voters wanting to keep their money in their pockets. Not a surprise in this economy. In fact, just about nothing in this election has been a surprise.

Of course, the local races haven't been completely decided, yet, because all the absentee ballots haven't been counted. But the trends are usually correct... it's like the votes already counted are a representative sample. It's pretty rare for absentee ballots to change anything but a very close race.

In Washington, voters can choose to always vote absentee, so many races are still officially not counted.

Another thing I like about Washington is that we aren't forced to pick a party when we register to vote. It seems genuinely un-American to me to have to join a political party just to be able to vote at all. If I had to pick a political party, I don't know what I'd choose... I generally vote Democrat, but I also agree with Republicans on a number of issues and have been known to vote Republican. And when candidates from both parties reek of political stupidity, I've even been known to pick a third party. I don't consider myself Democrat, nor Republican, nor any other party. So if I had to declare myself a member of one party, I don't think I'd be comfortable doing it.

Anyway, if you didn't vote I hope you are happy with the way things are, because you didn't bother to give your say in it so you can't complain. And if you did vote, Huzzah for you! ... even if your candidate didn't win. At least you let your opinion be counted.