A pretty bold agenda. But what I was most happy about was when he talked about voting. This is a huge pet peeve of mine.
I often mention here my parents are Republicans. Moderate Republicans. You couldn't pay them to watch Fox Noise or listen to Rush.
Well my mother runs the elections in her district. Since we live in the same state we vote the same time, and I almost always call her on election night and ask how it went.
More about this below the fold.
Most of those phone calls she is in tears. That a district that has about 12,000 people able to vote, often only a few hundred do. I was raised in a family where my parents didn't force their political views down my throat, how I can be a raging liberal. But I was taught that it was my duty as a citizen to vote. It was important.
That brings me to what Obama talked about tonight.
Now it pains me more people don't vote. But what really pisses me off is people not being able to vote in a timely fashion. Where I live, where my mom runs the elections you can vote faster than you can order a Big Mac. Voting is actually kind of easy. I think that is the coolest thing in the world.
I want that for other people and so should Obama and our party.
But I read the Diaries here and watch MSNBC on election days and I am stunned by how hard it seems to be for many people to vote.
I don't live in a rich community. But we got voting down to an "art." It isn't rocket science.
This is how voting works where I live. First off in almost every instance you vote at a school. There are three Republicans and three Democrats working the place. You walk into the place and there is a large table. A sign that says A-M and N-Z. That is your last name. You walk up and they have a book with your name in it. You tell them your name.
They tear off a copy of your voting card and hand it to the person next to them. That person initials your ballot and hands it to you. You walk to a pop-up voting booth. Fill it out. You come back and put it in an optical scanner, where the thing gives me a print out saying how I voted.
It is that simple. I don't think it has ever, from when I walked into the place to when I exited, taken me more than ten minutes to vote. There are no lines. There are no problems. The system just works.
Back to my mom. I've sent her the stats. That more people voting might mean that folks she supports will lose elections, she is cool with that. Just as I am. If more people vote and the will of the people is such they elect people I don't agree with I can deal with that.
Keep in mind the primary purpose of this site is to elect more and better Democrats. That can only be done by making it easier for folks to vote. A topic we should, IMHO, be talking about here 24/7.