"They told me". Reflections on my life as a voter
When I was fifteen, they told me,”Reagan will never be elected president!” But he was. Twice.
“Don't worry”, they told me, “these things go in cycles. The pendulum will swing to more progressive policies soon.” Then GHWB was elected.
*****
That touted progressive leader that they'd promised me seemed to have showed up in 1992, but he seemed to me to lack a certain authenticity. He didn't possess the sincerity of FDR, RFK, or Carter. He sounded like a used car salesman.
I was one of the twenty percent who voted for Perot. Yes, he was “eccentric”, to put it mildly, but I thought he was right on trade, and in that sense, I was right about him.
Clinton was elected, and they told me, “Now we can fight back.”
But we didn't.
Clinton compromised with Republicans, even as they did everything short of hanging him in effigy in the streets.
My doubts about Clinton increased, but what could I do? “Yeah, he's not perfect.” they told me, “but Dole would be worse! You can't always get what you want!”
So, I did as I had pretty much always done. I voted for the lesser evil.
But that never seemed to work. Half the time I got the lesser evil. Otherwise, I got the full-on evil anyway.
*****
A new millennium.
This time, the choice was easy: a likeable, if wooden vice-president versus an unadulterated idiot.
The closest election I'd ever seen.
“Don't worry”, they told me, “Bush is crooked, and Gore will fight him!”
But he didn't.
We let the Republicans off the hook, just as we had for the October Surpise, Iran-Contra, the S&L scandal, ad infinitum...Bush was installed as president. A constitutional crisis was avoided “for the good of the country!”
Then planes flew into buildings while the village idiot did what a village idiot does: nothing!
*****
Three years later. I had finally found a candidate I could vote for without holding my nose!
“But he's a kook!”, they told me. And as they marginalized Dennis Kucinich, I began to wonder what they really thought about me.
Bush and his crooked cronies turned a war hero into a pariah. Grinning idiots with purple heart band -aids filled my TV screen.
“Kerry's not like Gore!”, they told me “He won't stand for this!”
He turned out to be just as effete as the Bush cabal had said.
*****
It seemed a little too gimmicky for me. “Do we make history by electing a woman, or do we make history by electing a Black?”
My response: “Why don't we make history by electing a Democrat?” I proudly supported Dennis Kucinich for a second time.
*****
This time, the choice was easy: a likeable, if too easily-compromised president versus a capitalist vulture.” Yeah, Obama was a little to effusive in his praise of Reagan, but I'd come to realize that, unlike Republicans (as odious as their beliefs may be), Democrats don't fight for principles, or elections, or much of anything. Maybe it wasn't that the choice was easy. My first choice was once again all-too-easily dismissed. Maybe I didn't really have a choice. Maybe I'd never had a choice.
*****
I am now fifty-one. They tell me what they've always told me. “Yeah, she's not perfect, but the other side is worse! You can't always get what you want!” It's deja vu.
Except maybe not. This time, the crowds that gathered at the Kucinich rallies have multiplied a thousand-fold, and the oldest guy in the room has a fire I've never witnessed before! After decades of watching politicians play games at the expense of an endlessly hopeful electorate for nothing more than said politicians' careers, this man is saying aloud the sentiments that have been building in me for THIRTY-SIX YEARS! “The game is rigged, but if we stand together...It's not me, it's us!”
They tell me a lot of things about him, too. I may be slow. A score-and-sixteen-years slow, in fact; but I've finally caught on.
Everything they ever told me hasn't stopped the party from becoming everything they told me we were fighting against. I finally have a choice that is neither full-on evil, nor lesser evil, and if I don't choose The Progressive candidate now, despite what they tell me, Hillary is the best I'll be offered for the rest of my life!
I've got one shot! Bernie or bust!
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the story of my (and I think many people's) voting life. 
Thank you so much for posting this. 
