election day

I was just recounting my political evolution at a St Paddy's day party on Saturday.  I had to admit that in 1960 I was for Nixon.  My mom was a democrat but my dad was a republican, and I guess I wanted to be like dad, and we subscribed to the Tribune so I got a lot of right wing propaganda from the Colonel, and there was this rubric going around (I don't think we hear it anymore) that the democrats always got us into wars, and there was such a wave in Irish Catholic Gage Park that I was moved to buck against it.  In 64 that guy Goldwater was just too freaking nuts, I went democrat and never went back.

But I wasn't able to actually vote until 1968 which I guess was the same election Beagles is speaking of.  My guess is he went Tricky Dick.  The happy warrior should have been my man but he was too afraid of LBJ to come out against the war.  Anyway I had my heart set on Dick Gregory and the Freedom Party, but then I was afraid that when I got into the booth good sense would overwhelm me and I would vote for the hump.  I solved that problem by never registering.  Which is a bad example that I sometimes trot out to the youth of today who are making the same mistake, but they ignore me just as I would have.

In 1970 I was down in Herrin doing my CO when Everett Dirksen died and they had a off year between a republican hack, Ralph Tyler Smith, and democratic warhorse Adlai Stevenson III.  Here's a tidbit from wiki, Karl Rove cut his teeth working for Smith.  I was for Adlai of course, but what pushed me into the polls was Smith ran a photo of Adlai with the right half of his face regular guy, and the left half stone hippie.  Pissed me off, of course and I cast my first vote.  I wonder if young Karl Rove was behind that photo, sure sounds like him huh?

Property taxes are a big scam in Cook County.  If you have a lot of money you hire a lawyer and go to court to get them knocked down.  Did I say a lawyer, I meant a law firm, and you would be a fool to not hire a law firm headed by an alderman or some other political hotshot of which there are plenty.  The result is the rich pay little and the poor pay a lot.  It's an obvious scam which just keeps on going, which is why I hope that by the time Old Dog reads this he will be basking in the glow of casting his vote like a shining vorpal sword to slay the Berrios and his slithy toves gyring and gimbling in the wabe,

Got five robos in an hour last night and had to sort through about twenty mailers to see if I had any real mail. that should end today, and hark yonder clock reads 6:06 AM, time to put on my shoes and walk down to the polls.


Went well enough I suppose.  I got all the big ones, had to guess on a few of the smaller ones.  The judges instead of listing the judges where you could go thumbs up or thumbs down the various courts each had like three names none of which meant anything to me, and I forgot to take my cheat sheet, so I just didn't vote for any.  I hope other voters did more due diligence than I.  On the other hand I did better than most just by showing up and voting.  And now all mimsy are the borogroves.