Rant #2,765: Independence

As Elizabeth Hurley shares with us yet another bikini shot, our country got thrown for a loop on Tuesday ... but in a very positive way.
 
I think a lot of people actually felt like me when they went into the voting booth; things are bad, have been made worse by our elected leaders, and it was time for a change.
 
That is probably the thinking that prevented Donald Trump from winning a second term, and I do believe it will now be the thinking behind voters’ choices in many Election Days to come.
 
Looking back at what happened on Tuesday with two days’ hindsight, Republicans were voted in over Democrats who were thought to be part of the machine that is running this country into the ground.
 
Yes, like with Trump, those thought to be affiliated with President Biden—whether they actually are or aren’t—were generally voted out, or at least won paper-thin majorities in races that looked like routs beforehand.
 
So you had Republicans who won this time around, because they had little or nothing to do with Trump, and even if they did, people are simply fed up with what is going on now.
 
Even President Biden said it: “People are upset,” he said, and that is perhaps the most on-spot comment he has ever made.
 
And people ARE fed up.
 
They are certainly fed up with the pandemic, which has warped our way of life into something that resembles what we had before, but is simply isn’t; they are fed up with rising prices all the way around, whether you are paying at the pump or you are paying at the supermarket.
 
They are fed up with the attitude that some legislators have had, “You do what I tell you to do and I will do what I have to do my way.”
 
They are fed up with mandates, and they are fed up with our divided country, which they blame on supposedly entrenched politicians who are literally bathing in the power that they have.
 
They have had it, and rather than destroy things, like others who were fed up did just a year ago, they directed their feelings in the only place it mattered: at the polling place.
 
I, too, am fed up with how things are going, and I mentioned in this blog months ago how I would vote, but at that time, I didn’t realize how personal it was going to get.
 
As I mentioned, one legislator up for vote this Election Day would not help me when I asked her for assistance related to my son’s health care via Social Security.
 
Sure, her office gave me the phone number of another legislator, but I would have called him next anyway, and as I explained, he was very accommodating.
 
When I spoke to the first legislator’s office, they seemingly didn’t have a care in the world, and when I told them that there was just a week to go before Election Day, and because of their inaction, I would not be voting for their boss, they basically told me, “OK,” and that was the end of the conversation.
 
I wonder if I actually spoke to the legislator, rather than one of her peons, perhaps she would have helped me.
 
But since that didn’t happen, I stood by my guns, didn’t vote for her, and evidently, others didn’t either, and her opponent is now the presumptive winner of her position.
 
That is how things are today.
 
I believe, as I always have, that independent voters like myself are the voters that should be courted by candidates, not registered Republicans or Democrats who are pretty much going to vote the party line.
 
We are independent for a reason; we will vote Republican or Democrat, we will not be tied to a party, and most importantly, we vote on the issues, not on the party platform.
 
Being an independent voter is being the best, most informed voter, because we vote on the issues, not on whether those running are a Democrat or a Republican.
 
And I do believe that independent voters swung this past election, because legislators kind of forget about us and the power that we wield at the voting booth.
 
And if this feeling holds true throughout President Biden’s time as president, I think he is smart enough to know that not even halfway through his presidency, he is in trouble when it comes to not only the remainder of his time at the top, but when he invariably runs again for the commander-in-chief position.
 
And again, it will be the independents who will swing this vote, and I am proud of being in that voting group.
 
Let’s see what happens, but I do think that the tide has turned, based on this year’s election results.

And I also know that the tide can turn back to what it had been if those newly voted-in politicians do not deliver on their promises.
 
Funny how what was considered to be an “off-year” election ended up being such a very important one.