Friday, October 12, 2012

Proud to be a Democrat, but ...


Well --- no. Didn't watch the debate, or the one before that. The advantage of being a consistent straight-ticket (Democrat) voter is that one doesn't have to.

That's kind of in line with the old Elbert Hubbardism, "Personal liberty is the art of discrimination --- knowing what you don't want and leaving it alone."

On the other hand, I should be more politically involved. Oh hell, let somebody else do it.

Besides, the last time I set out to find local Democrats all I could come up with was a Web site with vague reference to meetings at what I think is a bar in Russell. Nothing against either bars or Russell, but that seemed a little odd.

Besides, who has the time?

And --- my fault --- I was invited to a meet-and-greet a couple of weeks ago for one of this year's Democratic candidates (to be brutally frank, I've forgotten which one) at the home of friends. Then I forgot. As a political animal I'm a failure.

Lucas County Republicans did come up with enough energy to open a headquarters the other day, but there's not really anything available online about Republicans either. It's my impression they're all over 70 and computer challenged --- and that's probably not far from the truth.

Maybe if I read the Chariton newspapers more carefully .... No, probably not. Political commentary on the editorial page of this week's Herald-Patriot consisted of a long letter from a reader who has been listening to some guy named Glenn Beck and thereby discovered the imminent threat to Lucas County of the Muslim Brotherhood, plus a fairly standard "Vote no on retaining Wiggins" letter citing God's World. The lone Democrat seemed to be arguing that a Republican candidate was unqualified because his children were home-schooled.

I sometimes think about writing letters to the editor --- then it just doesn't seem to be worth the aggravation of bringing down the wrath, often in the form of a public rebuke, from our shall-we-say "conservative" publisher.

A majority of Lucas Countyans will vote Republican, that's for sure. A lot of that's just habit --- or pure cussedness. Half the county seems to be running for supervisor --- that's obvious.

And I'm a pretty pathetic Democrat.

But I do plan to drag my sorry ass to the candidate forum next week, sponsored by the Leadership Plenty project of the Lucas County Horizons program (admittedly, I don't know a darned thing about either the project or the program and can't find anything out there that might tell me more). But the forum will offer candidates for the Iowa Senate, Iowa House and the county Board of Supervisors. It begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17, at the Freight House.

At least it's a start. See you there?

3 comments:

Martin said...

Frank, I"m not 70 nor computer challenged.

Martin Buck

Frank D. Myers said...

Just checking to see if you were awake!

Anonymous said...

Hi Frank,

I admit sharing some of your frustrations, particularly regarding Letters to the Editor. Sometimes I want to correct misinformation; other times, the spelling, grammar and usage errors are so egregious that I want to send back a copy covered with editing symbols written in red ink. (How does an old editor like you STAND it?) Inevitably, like you, I come down on the side of, "Nah, not worth the aggravation." Absent other options, I guess I'll remain a (mostly) closeted Democrat. :)

Ruth Comer