I Heart Voting

It's such a fabulous thing to do. Every time I go to the polls I sense the best of living in a country with such rights and freedoms.

In some ways, I could have skipped this primary. I'm still a registered Republican, so I could not vote for either Democratic candidate. But in that, I was spared having to decide between the two, the one that has my heart and the one that has my head (and you'd be surprised which one is which.)

I woke, late for me, to snow flurries, checked my email, made my scrabble moves, took all my pills, and pondered what do do next. I kept thinking that I had an appointment or something, but could not remember what it was. I reminded myself that it was Thursday that I had to go to court as a witness for something related to our store. And Wednesday I had to take Equus to the barn in the morning. But what was Tuesday? I could not remember what I had needed to to on Tuesday.

I clicked over to the Washington Post to scan the headlines and saw, "Potomac Primaries."

That's it! That's what I needed to go do this morning. Vote.

I decided to use the voting excursion as a reason to go to 7-Eleven and get myself a diet coke, my favorite part of the day, bonding with the caffeine junkies. I pulled in to a very quiet polling place with only one guy in the parking lot, sitting in a folding chair, head down with orange knit cap, trying to avoid the flurries and wind.

"You sure do have a great job," I called out.

He peered up at me from under the orange cap and smiled. Then he got up from his chair and began to tell me about his candidate. I nodded and listened and then just has he turned the pamphlet over, asked me, "Can we count on your support?"

I glanced at the picture of the lovely black woman running for congress and the saw the picture of Obama as well. I did not have the heart to tell the young man braving the cold that I was registered as a Rebuplican, so I just said, "Yes."

"Thanks, you made my day, really!"

I wondered if there were only Republicans coming to my polling place or something. Maryland is a blue state, but our county is rather wealthy if you know what I mean.

I went into the polls and gave all my relevant data and got my voting card. In the process, the kind man asked me, "Is it correct that your party affiliation is Republican?"

"Yes, unfortunately it is."

"Well," he smiled and said, "it's not to late to switch for the general election. We have the forms right here."

So I filled out the forms and really wanted to switch to independent, but in our state you can't vote in the primaries (except for the school board) as an independent. In fact, that's the reason Boogieman is not voting today.

So I took a big breath and felt all grown up as I checked the Democrat box. My Republican registration was a legacy of my upbringing and values I held as a twenty something in the Reagan era. So much has changed since then, in me and in this country.

I took my voting card and went to the table to be taken to a booth. A nice man in khakis saw me and said, "All people wearing backwards ballcaps have to go to booth one."

I smiled and nodded. "That would be you right?"

"Yes, I definitely have my ballcap on backwards."

He instructed me what to do and how to put the card in and all that. Then my information came up on the screen and he asked, "So Republican is your correct party affiliation?"

I smiled and gave him the same line, "Yes, unfortunately it is."

"What do you mean unfortunately?" he said in mock exasperation.

"Oops, sorry, " I said with a grin.

As I turned in my card to the same khaki guy, he smiled and gave me my sticker. It amazes me how voting brings out the best in all of us. It was such a happy experience and everyone seems just so pleased to be a part of the process. Well, at least that's what it looks like in my demographic. :)

As I went out, I saw one of my neighbors and realized that he was volunteering there. How cool. Even better, his name is Kwame.

I cast my vote for John McCain. He's not who I want to be president. But he is who I want to be the Republican candidate -- because he is not an evangelical (read Huckabee).

(Technically, Clinton and Obama are evangelicals, but clearly they are not running on that platform. In fact, Obama speaks more for pluralistic values than anyone in a very long time.)

I know. That is narrow and discriminating of me. In this, I am guilty of the same things that I hold others, who do not share my liberal view, accountable for doing to me and others.

Here's the thing. I think there will be a day when, once again, I could vote for an evangelical Republican for president.

Right now, there is still too much power in the evangelicals-as-voting-block. Even John McCain is pandering to them and acting like he's one of them, even though I don't think he really is. At least not in the way that he thinks his election would be a sovereign act of God.

I just want the pendulum to swing back to the values of plurality. I'm tired of this country being dominated by the religious agenda. I'm secular. And I vote too.

Yes, I see the irony in my position. I'm making an anti-religious vote. But not forever, just until we wash ourselves clean from the abuses of the power brokers in the religious right who were able to use abortion, and aids, and homosexual marriage to convince their constituents that to vote Republican was to vote for God.