The colors of voting

I am an old man. On top of all that I am confused. When I was a young fellow, barely aware of politics in general, if you were a vehement Democrat, then you were referred to as a Yellow Dog democrat. If you were a vehement Republican then you were referred to as a Blue Dog republican.

Now I am watching a news channel some time ago and I will be ding danged if they didn't refer to a moderate democrat as a blue dog democrat. On top of all that wherein they used to color the states that went republican in general elections on the big board of states in blue on the TV. Now they color such states in red. I am so confused. Is it any wonder? When did they change all the colors around?

When I was a little boy, home sick with a fever, my Mom would bring me a coloring book with a box of Crayola colors. I always trusted those color crayons to make me feel better. I can still even smell the little guys. Now someone has changed all the colors around on me and I am suffering the early pangs of schizoid behaviour. Is it any wonder?

Another thing that I don't understand is the relative matter of voter apathy. I read this morning in our local rag that, on a good day, the turnout in a primary election is about 20%. The turnout in the last general election, which set some records, was 47%. Whaaaatttttt? You mean to tell me that 1 out of 5 people go to the polls in the very important primaries? 4.7 people out of 10 go vote in the general election? Why that is just preposterous.

Yet you hear almost 100% of the people grousing and complaining about our elected officials. I have those types in my family. I have an 82 year old aunt who complains almost nonstop about the President and our congress yet she has not voted in the past 40 years. I know that we all have similar stories to tell from within our own families.

It is a given that the right to vote has been preserved for us on the backs of our patriot fathers who spilled their blood to assure our voting rights. I can hear Yankee Doodle playing as I stroke this keyboard. It just does not make sense does it? I have observed the tea party movement which has established the fact that people are all P/O'd over the status quo. It will be interesting to see what sort of turnout we get at the polls in this primary round.

I don't get it. I just don't get it. It just portrays old fashioned stoopid. Speaking of STOOPID, take a look at this video of an elected official in our Congress and ask yourself if you think it matters that intelligent people exercise their franchise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yT48wiRue4