I've Officially had My Say, but I'll Say More in November

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Democrat and Voter

For those who follow this blog, an admittedly small number of people who must lead exceedingly sad lives, you were already aware of my discontent on a couple of issues with regard to the upcoming presidential contest.  I have been, and remain, massively unhappy that our ultimate choice will be between two elderly white men who are each older than me, and I am equally unhappy about the incumbent President rushing full-throttle to arm Israel while the death toll of civilians in Gaza, many of them women and children, roars past 30,000 with no end in sight - and his challenger who is barking mad to assume office and begin his own full-battle-rattle support of the genocide.  (Yup, I used that word.)

It is very disappointing to me that Missouri is always a late participant in the presidential selection process.  I have donated money to a candidate over each of the last two election cycles, and in both cycles (2020 and 2024) the candidate that I donated to had already dropped out of the race by the time I had an opportunity to weigh in with a vote.  In fact, the candidates for both parties had already been determined before Missouri had any say in the matter.  That sucks.

I have also expressed my displeasure at the sporadic and tilted ways in which these poor choices for candidates are selected by the parties, and I am very disappointed that the GOP majority Missouri Legislature did away with our state presidential primary thus effectively denying most of our state's voters in both parties a practical way to participate in the process.  The Republicans of Missouri recently held their caucuses, and participation from people who were willing to give up a Saturday morning and go sit in a room with hardened GOP politicians and loudmouthed Trump supporters and hecklers was tiny compared to the participation in the previous state-run presidential primaries.  Most people, hundreds of thousands, chose not to participate, and that is exactly what the politicians and party leaders wanted.

The Missouri Democratic Party chose a different route, one that also will see much less participation, and that also bothers me.  The Democrats chose to fund their own primary through a private "election contractor."  For a Democrat, such as myself, to participate in the process, that person first has to hear about it and learn how to apply for a ballot.  Even though I had gone to the trouble to request information ahead of time with the state party, I learned about how the election would work and how to get a ballot through my local newspaper.  The article contained misinformation, and when I called the editor, who was also the lady who wrote the piece, she doubled down on the misinformation.   She told me that prospective voters had to be officially affiliated with the party to join in the Republican caucuses or the Democratic primary.  I knew that was wrong and I called the courthouse to confirm that it was wrong.  But the editor was persistent, very pleasant, but persistent in the error.

Using the information provided in the newspaper through what was basically a press release, I got on the internet and requested a Democratic primary ballot.   The first thing I received a few days later was a shiny brochure inviting me to send in $35 dollars and become an official party member.  (As a senior, the ad said I could become a faithful Democrat for only $25.)  I declined to send in anything because, if it was a request for money in order to vote - and the brochure never actually said that - but if it was, that would be a poll tax, and poll taxes and literacy tests are both outside of the bounds of my political religion as well as unconstitutional.

I was already a "proven" Democrat anyway by virtue of being a former Democratic County Chair in Missouri as well has having contributed recently to the state party and a couple of high-profile state candidates.  But I was not about to chip in a poll tax have my say - that is not the way MY America works.

The ballot arrived last Thursday, and I marked it and sent it back on Friday.  It is due into the election contractor's office by 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 23rd - my 76th birthday.  The results should be tallied by the next day.

The seven choices on the Democratic ballot were, in this order:  

Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Dean Phillips

Stephen P. Lyons

Armando Perez-Serrato

Marianne Williamson

Jason Michael Palmer

Uncommitted

(Jason Michael Palmer is an interesting character.  He is a politician and entrepreneur who defeated Biden in the American Samoa Democratic Caucuses on March 5th, so far the only person to deal Biden a loss in the current election cycle.)

I cast a vote of conscience.  It will be interesting to see if my minuscule participation has any impact on the ultimate selection and membership of the Missouri delegation to the national convention.  But I had a say, officially, and that's all I wanted.

Now I would like to have a say in the national results, but as a resident in a very red state in a time when popular votes are superseded by electoral votes, that will be virtually impossible.  Both candidates are already exclusively focused on a handful of "swing" states where the results could go either way, and the voters in those swing states will choose the next president.   Those of us who live in solidly red or blue states will just have to be content with watching the process play out on television.  The election does not really concern us as far as the campaigns are concerned - we are taken for granted, and our down ballot candidates (state and local candidates who could benefit from a visit by a national candidate) can go pound sand.

Well, here is where I stand on that:  I will not vote for a candidate who does not hold at least one official campaign stop or rally in Missouri between the time of the convention and the election, and I would not vote for Trump even if he campaigns nonstop in Missouri the entire time.

Make of that what you will.