I Voted 2024

It should go without saying:

I hope you did, too. (And I hope you voted Blue.)

I’m hoping the only thing dreary about today is the weather. Completely cloudy and varying from a drizzle to a light rain. But, as always, voting couldn’t be easier for me. I technically live in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul but in an outer suburb adjacent to farm country.

I rarely stand in line when renewing my driver’s license or plate tabs, and if I do it’s never for long. Likewise voting. Plenty of parking right outside, walk in, get a ballot, pick a spot, ink in the chosen circles, and feed ballot to the machine. I was voter #206 today.

No lines, no waiting!

Since I’ve been retired, it’s even easier. The trick is going in between 9 and 10, a nice window after the morning rush by folks who need to get to work (the poor darlings) and before any possible lunch rush or from folks who attack their day later.

Now comes the dreadful part. Because today’s Republicans are fundamentally unable to wrap their heads around being minority. All the vote suppression and gerrymandering they do is an implicit admission they can’t win except by cheating.

And their constant pointing the finger at Democrats for supposed cheating is such obvious transference. They think Democrats cheat because they know their own approach is based on cheating. We tend to see in others the flaws we know best in ourselves.

The worst thing about all this is the division and hatred. Rather than being an effort to work together across party lines, politics today teaches us to hate our opponents. And that’s sad, not just in terms of the emotional cost today, but also on a future of humanity.

Vote Blue, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.

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