These quadrennial national elections seems less relevant than ever. My attitude may be a factor of age. I have now participated in my ninth presidential vote and in the 2012 race I was happy to once again vote for the Greens. If I think back, many of my presidential choices have been third party standard bearers. I’ve never felt my vote was wasted. My defense is that in a nation of 300 million people it’s a little preposterous that the choice mainly gets distilled into a one of two dichotomy.
And then there’s the environment. During the run up to the election precious little (if any) mention was made by either major party about environmental matters. There was the occasional nod to renewable energy on the one hand, and a lot of universal agreement about drilling as fast as we can.
I could be cynical and say that somewhere out there Sarah Palin was smiling. Drill Baby Drill was merely refined and repurposed for this campaign, don’t you think? But it’s not really the candidates fault – they’re just trying to steer the ship, and right now the voting passengers want to drive their cars. Did anyone notice how gas prices have fallen lately? Global warming and the safety issues that surround nuclear energy are not even part of the greater public discourse.
By this time tomorrow we will probably find that very little has changed in Washington, despite huge expenditures to run all those assorted campaigns. I guess I can’t get too high and mighty when I too dropped a few bucks into assorted offering plates this fall. Still, I’d like to think that money could someday be put towards a better use. Any ideas?
And Spaceship Earth keeps rolling along.
