I may as well give this a try. I've heard so much about blogging, and read so many now that I figure what the hell? What have I got to lose but time and dignity.
It's now just a little over a week until the big election. I have to say, this has been the most interesting political campaign season of my life. I started out last year saying that I didn't care who was elected, we were bound to be better off. We could elect a monkey and he would be more effective in the job, and probably do less damage. I've changed my perspective though, and now I'm rooting for Mr. O.
I've been following politics since I was quite young. When only a wee lad, I was a big fan of cowboy movies and tv shows. One of the networks had been promoting a live western drama on U.S. Steel Hour and I was looking forward to it with great anticipation. The night of the broadcast, the show was preempted by an address to the nation by President Eisenhower, so because the telecast was live, it was cancelled, I think permanently.
I was steamed. I asked my mom, "Is President Eisenhower a democrat or a republican?" She said he was a republican, and I replied, "Then I'm a democrat." And that's how my lifelong political affiliation began.
There were other reasons, though. My grandpa believed that Herbert Hoover was the devil incarnate, and that FDR was the Second Coming. My Uncle Loris, who I adored, used to say, "Don't bother about worrying who to vote for. Just vote straight Democrat and you won't go wrong." So I came by it honestly.
When I was only 9 years old or so, I enjoyed going to my grandparents' house (next door to ours) and visiting with my grandpa in the evening. He'd be reading the newspaper after dinner, and got in the habit of pointing out articles to me. He'd have me read the piece, then ask me, "What do you think about this, Hat?" (He called me Hat.) I'd say, "Aw, I don't know, Grandpa," but he'd push me and push me until I offered some opinion. Then he'd argue with me.
It didn't matter what opinion I'd put forth, he'd always argue the opposite. He taught me two things through this almost nightly ritual: to pay attention to and think about current events, and to love to argue just for the sake of arguing. Little wonder I eventually became a lawyer.
Since I started out so young, by the time I was voting age (21 in those days) my excitement about voting had reached a fever pitch. Unfortunately, I came of age in the heat of the Viet Nam war controversy. The first presidential election in which I could vote was in 1968. I'd been an ardent Kennedy admirer like so many of my generation, and in many respects thought highly of Lyndon Johnson. When it came to his Viet Nam policy though, we parted company.
I was strongly against the war. I believed it was a moral lapse on the part of the U.S. Early on, I felt a kind of abstract opposition that grew in intensity the longer the war went on. LBJ escalated the war the summer of 1965, which was the summer after my first year of college. Since I'd mostly majored in beer, and was not interested in education, only in playing music, I hadn't done well in college, and like an idiot, dropped out in the fall of 1965, leaving myself vulnerable to the draft.
Due to the efforts of my mother, my childhood doctor, and a recruiting sergeant (a story for another time) I managed to end up with a 1Y classification and (lucky for the Army) avoided the draft. Many of my friends were being drafted though, and the nightly casualty reports were causing my opposition to the war to intensify. I'd gotten married in 1966 and had a child the next year, and in 68 we'd suffered through the agony of the King and RFK assassinations. Feelings ran so high I can't really describe it.
Anyway, when it came time to vote that year, I was faced with an impossible situation. Because I was so opposed to the Johnson war policy and was convinced that Hubert Humphrey would continue with more of the same, I could not bring myself to vote for him, Democrat or no. Obviously, I could never vote for Richard Nixon, so what to do? In the end, I did as about 300,000 of my fellow Americans did. I wrote in Pat Paulsen for president. For the majority of you who have no idea who that was, all I can say is "Look it up."
Pat Paulsen was a comedian featured on the very popular and controversial Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. He did a running gag routine in 68 of running for president saying he thought he was as qualified as the other comedians who were running. I checked, and there are some old videos of him on Youtube. Check them out. http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCDmvhQ-aZEE
So anyway, in that year of an immoral war, police riots at the Democratic convention, two horrible assassinations, and only a year before Kent State, I cast my first presidential vote for a comedian . . . and I'm still proud of it.
Catch you next time. Drink to absent friends.
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