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Sparkle (3)
My son turned 18 this year, and is about to vote for the first time, so naturally I started thinking about my own voting experience. I didn’t grow up in a home where I recall politics being discussed openly like it is in my children’s home. Maybe it was because my parents were divorced when I was very young, and so these conversations never happened. I’m prone to think it is because my parents came from an age where your politics were considered private, and you just didn’t discuss it. If I had to venture a guess, I would have said my Dad was a Republican and my mom was a Democrat. Although, if you asked me now, I’d tell you exactly the opposite. Technically I think my dad may be a Libertarian now, but that’s a whole other ballgame. I have heard others speak about their own experiences and how they “switched teams” as they grew older. I’ve often wondered about the process that takes place, in order for that to happen. My own positions have never changed, but my political thinking has evolved significantly over the years. In some ways I miss the optimism of my young voter self, and in others I despise the naiveté of her ideology.
The year I became a member of the voting world was a Presidential election year. I recall primaries where a young Al Gore caught my attention. I laugh now, because this “young” man was around the age I am now. His age was of particular significance to me though, because in my lifetime it seemed only old decrypted men were Presidents, and I idealistically believed that youth would make a man a better choice. I don’t recall knowing too much else about him at the time. I was disappointed when he didn’t win the primaries (which I couldn’t vote in). Beyond this, I don’t have any recollection of how I actually voted, But I DO have a recollection of why I didn’t get to vote in the primaries, and it is probably the first lesson I learned.
Eighteen. Young, inexperienced, hopeful, on my own. Ah! Sweet adulthood. I was approached, somewhere, and given the opportunity to register. Because I was so full of idealistic hope, when it came time to select a party affiliation I wanted to be sure that I didn’t get pigeon-holed into a specific party, like the “old folks” did. *I* was an open-minded young voter of the future. I selected American Independent, because I was, after all, an American, and I wanted to be Independent. To be fair and in my defense, there weren’t as many third party choices back then, my government teacher never even covered what a third party was. I had no idea they existed. Also, there weren’t those little notes next to the party affiliations like there are now. Obviously I must not have been the only idiot to make this mistake, since now the paperwork is much clearer…right? So, needless to say, when it came time to vote in the primaries, I wasn’t allowed to vote for that young man, because he was not my party’s choice. It’s embarrassing to say that this had to be explained to me by some blue haired woman at our voting location. But she kindly explained what had happened, and gave me the paperwork to change it, explaining that I needed to instead state “undeclared” or some such, which I believe you had to write in at the time. Ok. Crisis somewhat averted. First lesson learned.
Now we entered the election, and in addition to electing my representatives and a President, there are a number of Propositional issues to grapple with, something else I don’t recall learning anything about in High School. I’m not actually sure I learned anything useful in that class come to think of it. A barrage of “vote yes on”/ “vote no on” commercials hit the airwaves. In most cases I felt like I had a pretty clear understanding of how I wanted to vote. But in one particular area I was having some trouble understanding the measure. So, I did what I think most young people do, I turned to my father and asked him. My father's response surprised me, still surprises me, and was so profound it has influenced my voting choices from that point forward
