It’s Election Day and I’ll get to that but first I have to write about what I did yesterday; I went to my first Knick game of the season. I used to go to almost every regular season plus every post-season game. I love basketball, almost as much as baseball. The Knicks are finally in a total rebuild. They should have done this 17 years ago. They are stocking up on your players and draft picks instead of loading up the roster with over-rated and more importantly overpaid tradition stat stars, they never did as well with the new analytical stats. Now every starting player is 26 or younger. Coach Fizdale is going back to the coaching strategy of their glory days, emphasizing defense. They are starting their five best defensive players, not the ones with the pretty stat lines. They are a bad team, but a bad team building to the future, not one hoping to regain the past. They play hard. They played another poor team, the Chicago Bulls. The result, an exciting game. It was tied at the half. It was tied at the end of four quarters. It was tied at the end of the first overtime. It was tied with 0.2 seconds left in the second overtime. Unfortunately the Knicks fouled then and they lost the game. As always I had a lot of fun talking to Alan.
Now on to the election. I made sure to change my official residence to this address so I don’t have to travel to City Island to vote. Last I checked it hadn’t gone through the bureaucracy but was told to not worry; I’m registered and I can vote. I don’t make a voting plan, never got that. I note when I have time and that’s when I do it. Today I’ll do it this afternoon. I have voted close to 6 AM when they open and at 9 PM when they close. New York State doesn’t have early voting, thank you Republican State Senate, but New York City gives us plenty of time to vote on the day.
I went through the ballot and I’m voting straight Democratic, except for the uncontested judgeships. That’s undemocratic so I always write-in when someone runs unopposed. I have voted for friends, family, myself, and fictional characters. On the proposals I’m voting yes on 1 and no on 2 and 3.
There are some things I never understand about some voters and nonvoters and some things about voting many people don’t understand.
Nonvoter: Why vote they don’t care about what I want.
Me: Of course they don’t, you don’t vote. Why should they care?
Nonvoter or third-party voter: I disagree with both candidates on X so I won’t vote for them.
Me: No one is going to agree with you on every issue. Democracy is not the government doing what you want, it’s a compromise amongst the electorate. The government shouldn’t be taking every positing I’m in favor of. That would make me a dictator. If you want change, you have to convince other people you are right. They key things it that almost all the time one candidate is better than the other, and that’s who you should vote for. It isn’t choosing the lesser of two evils. I’ve never voted for someone evil, just candidates that are not ideal. Do the people that said Hillary and Trump were the same still think that? Susan Sarandon does, but I’m talking sane people. Imagine that you are a vegan at a wedding and the dinner choices are prime rib, fish, and pasta. Do you say, get the fish or meat because it’s not your favorite kind of pasta? We’re adults, we are supposed to understand we can’t get everything perfect. The idea is to get the best result that’s achievable.
I’m riddled with guilt as I have not worked on this election, so many of my friends have worked hard, friends that have far less time than I do. I have worked hard on elections when I had far less free time. After 12 years of Republican presidents I treated getting Clinton elected as a full-time job even though I had a full-time job; and he was my last choice in the primaries. Some of my psych issues have gotten worse since then. I know that’s why I didn’t volunteer, I try and not beat myself up. But the guilt is there. So is my admiration for the friends that did work hard. I’m proud of you.
Everyone I’m voting for is a heavy favorite to win. I’m worried about other elections, the control of the House, the Senate, and the state houses. The odds are very good on the Dems taking the House and very poor for them taking the senate. I’ll hope for the best. Only the senate can stop Trump from stacking the courts.
Don’t forget your down ballot choices. The only reason the GOP has any chance of maintaining control of the house is that they controlled the state houses after the 2010 census and gerrymandered their way to power. I would love for the Democrats to take the White House, Senate, and House in 2020 and instead of using it to bias everything in their favor, permanently changed the system so the voters pick their representatives, not the reps choosing their votes. Of course we still would have the problem with the electoral collage and undemocratic senate. Not much we can do about the senate, it’s deeply embedded in the constitution, it’s the one thing that can’t be amended. What we can do is get the states representing a majority of the electoral votes to pass the law assigning the state’s electoral vote to the candidate that wins the popular vote.
Enough on democracy. Now it’s time to eat and then vote.
Wise Madness 