Count me out of the furor
I am so done with this election.
By the time you read this*, I will have taken advantage of the state’s new early voting option. The election, at least for me, has come to a merciful close.
I used to love elections. I saw them as a secular annual ritual. I’ve covered elections, volunteered on campaigns and pushed for electoral reforms.
I used to be an advocate for elections and civic engagement. Now, I’m disgusted by its toxicity. It used to be gauche to talk politics in polite company; today, it’s pervasive, socially precarious and sometimes hazardous.
Too many have let their passions overwhelm them to the point where they are more comfortable embracing contempt than existing in an ecosystem of independent perspectives. A state of moral relativity now reigns, and values no longer have absolute meaning. Something as fundamental as free speech, for example, oscillates depending on what is being said and who’s saying it.
People mistake commitment to a cause as justification to fight. It’s been my experience that the most successful causes were more figurative fights and less literal ones.
When you cast your vote this month (if you haven’t already done so), take a look at that paper ballot. I lobbied that ballot into existence. Nineteen years ago, some very powerful elected officials in Connecticut (some of whom are still in office) wanted to have touch screen voting machines with no mechanisms for a bona fide recount. I pitched the need for a voter verified paper ballot to just about every single state legislator, Republican and Democrat, in the Capitol. I didn’t preach, deceive, belittle, flatter, bully, bribe, frighten, cajole or coax to get that bill passed. I merely asked that in the event of an electoral recount, wouldn’t you want something solid like a paper ballot to be counted?
Evidently, they agreed. The state House and Senate passed Senate Bill 55 unanimously, and Gov. Jodi Rell signed it into law.
Not everything I advocated was met with universal approval. A lot of those “yes” votes on that bill were hard “nos” on others. But there was always a polite exchange of thoughts and ideas, and one conversation paved the way for another. A little manners go a long way when trying to invoke change.
If you happen to be among the people who are swept up in the fever gripping this election, I’m not going to tell you what to do or feel. This is America; believe what you want.
Count me out, though. I cast my ballot, and I’m done. I’ll read about who won on Wednesday.
*If I’ve never mentioned it, The Suffield Observer has a deadline roughly two weeks before delivery.
This photo was taken in 2006 with then Gov. Jodi Rell. Before she addressed the Connecticut General Assembly on the lst day of the legislative session that year, she picked me out of the crowd, shook my hand and thanked me for my work in the passage of Connecticut’s campaign finance reform law.