I took advantage of early voting and wanted to share my choices, and my reasoning behind voting the way I did.
Before I begin, let me say a few things about myself. I’m very conservative, and believe strongly in personal freedom, offset by personal responsibility. I’m an independent and consider anyone who votes purely along party lines to be both a dupe, and irresponsible. They’re effectively abdicating their principle democratic freedom, namely the right to vote, to someone else. Along with being a freedom, voting is also a responsibility – to evaluate the issues and make subjective personal choices about them. By voting along party lines, you give away the keys to your kingdom. Worse, the people to whom you relinquish your rights are biased, and make no bones about being so.
Considering what I’ve already said, you’ve probably already decided how you think I’ve voted – read on and find out how right you might [not] be.
In the interest of reducing the onset of potentially fatal boredom, I’ll restrict this post to the more important issues on my particular ballot.
President – Score: Barack Obama 0, Mitt Romney -9. No contest, and not because I think Obama is doing a good job, actually I think he’s wasted an extravagant amount of my tax dollars and achieved precious little. However, the thought of returning to the warmongering excesses of the previous eight years is frightening – I definitely don’t want to go back to the way things were. Romney’s every word shows him to be a rich man with no intention of paying his fair share. I am yet to hear what his “plan” to turn things around is. Here, let me click my fingers and create 12 million jobs – there you are, 12 million jobs created! Oh dear, what’s that strange gassy sound – could it be the sound of virtual reality deflating…? Nope, in good conscience I just can’t cast a vote for someone who clearly has no plan worth sharing on how to solve the financial debacle in which we currently find ourselves – sorry, but giving yourself and your cronies a fat tax cut isn’t a “plan”. My litany of negatives against Romney goes on, and on, and on but that is the main issue I have with him. Bottom line, I’m not voting for Obama – I’m voting against Romney.
https://twitter.com/cgayling/status/252791625074503680
U.S. Senate – Score: Sherrod Brown 5, Josh Mandel -20. I have no problems with the way Sherrod Brown has voted on any of the major issues. I have massive reservations as to the character and integrity of Josh Mandel – whom I consider to be an incompetent Treasurer of State desperately trying to buy his way into the “old boys’ club” using political cronyism as coin. Mandel is too young, and too evidently prone to corruption.
U.S. House of Representatives – Score: Pat Tiberi 8, Jim Reese 0. I find Pat Tiberi to be fiscally conservative and generally responsible, my only real concern is his tendency to blur the lines between church and state. I know virtually nothing about Jim Reese.
Ohio House – Score: Donna O’Connor 5, Mike Duffey 0. I found much more information available on what Donna O’Connor stands for than I could for Mike Duffey. Donna’s goals align well with my own, she is a long time teacher (a profession for which I hold the highest esteem), and she seems concerned by the unashamed bias toward the wealthy evidenced in current Ohio politics. From impartial information I can discern, Mike Duffey is just a politician, (a profession for which I hold low esteem). In a way I am sorry to see Donna transition from a laudable profession into the mud-pit of politics, but I wish her well.
State Issue 1 – Convention To Revise, Alter, Or Amend The Ohio Constitution. No.
State Issue 2 – State-Funded Commission To Draw Legislative And Congressional Districts. Yes, right now there is frantic gerrymandering by the winners of each Ohio election as they seek to ensure their supporters get an unfair advantage in the next election. Both parties are guilty of this abhorrent behavior. Voting “yes” on Issue 5 changes this into a more efficient and equitable system.
State Issue 48 – Dublin City School District, Bond and Tax Levy. Yes. Dublin Schools are some of the highest rated in the nation, I don’t want to see that change.
State Issue 56 – Franklin County Office on Aging, Tax Levy. Yes. It takes money to provide services to the aged, who deserve to be treated with dignity.
~C.G.Ayling – Please, take the time to vote, and vote as your conscience dictates.
