Life in the Middle Lane

I’m a little sad today. North Carolinians (myself included) finally had a chance to vote in our late as hell election on Tuesday. At first I wasn’t excited about voting, and I had no plans to work the polls, which I always do in the general election in November.

That is, until I got a phone call from my favorite precinct worker asking me to work with her. I love her and we have worked the polls together in the cold and rain, so it was a no brainer to work with her; especially since it’s May, warm and sunny.

Also this is my little sister’s first election and she has been so excited about the process and so motivated by the candidates. She asked me to go with her to help her pick candidates, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy since I have been dragging her to political events for the majority of her life

So, anyway, my excitement grew over the last week. I finally picked my candidates, and arranged to take a half a day from work so that I could volunteer. May 6^th I voted and I helped so many other people make a more informed decision and exercise their civic duty.

And today, May 9^th, I got around to seeing who actually won. And I am a bit disappointed. One of my candidates won (but that was inevitable). In the most important state-wide races, change did not occur in North Carolina. Granted, I am in the Bible Belt Former Confederate South and I shouldn’t be surprised that politics as usual will continue to play out here. But I was hoping that all that “change” that is supposed to be in the air would have at least touched down here. Not so much, however.

And I’m disappointed, for myself and for my sister, who really didn’t need my help… she knew most of the candidates that she wanted to vote for and they matched mine to the tee. (I am the best big sister ever and I have indoctrinated her, politically, since her birth.)

She was so excited about getting to vote for the first time, and what do I tell her now? Now that she can see that our votes didn’t get our people elected. I, of course, will continue to tell her to vote, but it definitely gets harder when it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

So today, I’m left asking; who the hell did all those Obama supporters vote for in the other races? They certainly didn’t vote for change.