Election Eve

As we are coming up on the eve of another election in this country I am struck by how divided we are as a nation. I have not been alive long enough to remember a time where our country was this divisive. I have read about the 1960’s, talked to people who lived through it, and have watched movie after movie about it but I haven’t personally experienced it until now. I have no illusion that what we are facing today is anything near what people lived through during that time. That being said I am a bit concerned about what we are facing at this moment in time. 

It has taken me years to become settled into my voting thought process. I will be honest I have voted Republican in every presidential race up until this time. I did not vote for president four years ago; it was the first time ever for me to leave that part of the ballot blank. I followed my dad’s lead and it was the first time for him to never vote for president either, it was a moment in time I will never forget. It was really hard to not vote but at that time I couldn’t bring myself to vote for either party and there was no one on the ballot that was running third party. I would have told you that I was a die hard Republican throughout the years, I campaigned for the first time voting Democratic is a big deal for me. 

I will never forget turning 18 and registering to vote for the first time, I was so proud of that fact that I could finally vote. My first election to vote in, there was an amendment on the ballot to legalized interracial marriages. Y’all that weren’t that long ago in the state of Alabama that we needed to have an amendment to legalize something that should have always been allowed. I made sure to always read the amendments and know what they were about. I will admit that I didn’t really look into the candidates as much because if they were republican then I voted for them. Now both my Poppa and Dad had taught me better and I knew I should be looking into the candidates but I will claim I was young and didn’t fully understand just how much one needed to do that. 

After the last election of Bush I will tell you that is when I started to research the candidates. I really got into looking into all the candidates, their platforms, and what they believed both morally and spiritually. So four years ago I really dug deep into the candidates and I was so disheartened when Trump won the nomination for the party that I felt represented me. Yeah, I know, come to find out that the Republican Party doesn’t really represent me all that well. Now to be truthful neither party really represents me and what I believe but after a lot of research, heart searching, praying, and meditating I know now what I have to vote for and vote against. So four years ago was the start of a transition for me and my political thinking and leanings, but I wasn’t in the right headspace to vote for either candidate so I just didn’t vote for president for the first time in my life. I really only felt okay about that decision when dad and I talked about it and he explained to me that if I didn’t feel led then I shouldn’t waste my vote, so I didn’t waste my vote I just obtained. 

So on this eve of a major election I will gladly state that for the first time I voted for a democratic presidential nominee. I now stand with the left side of the aisle. Does the left side of the aisle represent me fully, no they don’t but they are closer to who I am than the republicans at this moment. I have grown up a lot over the last few years with the passing of dad, and one thing that has grown is my political thought process. I have in this election cycle, done a few firsts. I voted absentee early voting for the first time ever in my life and I voted for a party I never thought I would. This has been a turbulent year in many ways and one for the books but I am thankful that we live in this amazing country where people of all different walks of life can come together and make their voices heard. Elections are always such a wonderful time because you truly do see the best come out in people when everyone is in the same line to perform the same tasks. I have a feeling that this election is going to be even more divisive, the results are going to take longer to come out than the Bush/Gore election results, and people are going to be upset no matter the outcome. All that to say, please uses your right, your voice, and get out there and vote if you haven’t already. If you don’t think you can vote for either candidate, then that’s a “vote” too; it is you standing for what you believe in. Here’s to another election taking place and exercising your voice!