A political thought...

This past Tuesday, for the first time in my adult life, I abstained from voting in a major race.  I just could not in good conscience bring myself to vote for the Democratic candidate, and the Republican was simply not an acceptable choice.  (But, then again, they usually aren't.)

Now, I've had cases where the Dem was not at all who I wanted as the party candidate, but I've been able to hold my nose and vote anyway.  Not this time.  Just. Could. Not. Do. It.  No way. No shape. No form. No how.

Even the old "You have to vote to keep the other guy out" argument couldn't work with me this time.  And given the nature of the other guy, that's saying something!  The polls were lopsided enough against him that I felt I had some cover this time, but I'm still not sure I could have voted, even if it had been neck and neck.  Yes, it was just that bad.

So I took my ballot and wrote "Abstain" as a write-in for that particular race.  I hope to never have to do it again.

Speaking of politics, someone on a non-political forum the other day made the comment that next year's election was going to be the "most important in our lives."  Now, I tend to agree with that, though not for the same reasons.

Still, it got me to thinking....

Shouldn't every election be considered the "most important in our lives"?

Or coming at it from another angle, given the number of recent elections that have been declared to be the "most important in our lives," why does it seem that when elections were about actually governing--you know working together, achieving compromise, finding solutions--we had fewer of these "most important" elections.

It's only with the advent of the deeply-entrenched partisan mindset on one side of the aisle when everything became about taking the whole battlefield that all of a sudden every election is the "most important" one.

It's something to think about.

And, on a different note, the church where I vote hosts wrestling matches for one of the small-time conferences.  There was a match scheduled for Wednesday night, so the ring was already set up in the gym where the voting booths are on Tuesday.   I never voted with a wrestling ring before.  Interesting.