 |
| Yes, I did! |
The highlight may well have been getting my sticker that informs the public in so many languages that “I Voted!” Gee, aren’t I special?!?
FOR
ANYONE WHO has read my commentary, it shouldn’t be any surprise that I couldn’t
cast my vote against Donald Trump’s presidential aspirations quickly enough.
Aside
from Miss Hillary, I also cast my votes for Democratic candidates for U.S.
Senate (Tammy Duckworth), Cook County state’s attorney (Kim Foxx) and Illinois
comptroller (Susana Mendoza). I also said "no" on road funds and on merging the recorder of deeds with the clerk's office, but "yes" for the earned sick time measure.
In
the case of comptroller, I have noticed that many official endorsements are backing her
opponent, Leslie Munger, on the grounds that Mendoza is tied in too tightly to Illinois House
Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago; without noting that her opponent is nothing
but a lackey for Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Independence
is a dirty word, it would seem, when it comes to lower-level political posts.
BUT
I HAVE to confess that when going through the process of filling out a ballot
this time around, I was caught noticing the level of cluelessness I felt going
through all those judges.
 |
| Would this "judge" have been better? |
Some of whom I was asked to make a mark beside their name for retention, while others I was asked to vote “yes” or “no.” There were a couple of cases where I was asked to pick a name.
Yet
as I write this, some five hours after I actually cast my ballot, I’m not sure
I could name any of the people I voted for to serve as judges within Cook
County. That truly is sad. It really is clueless on my part, and borders on
political irresponsibility.
Yet
I doubt I’m alone in this regard. I suspect that most of us don’t have a clue
about judges, and have probably trained ourselves to not think twice about
this. After all, how can you be bothered about screwing something up if you don’t
give it any thought at all?
 |
| MENDOZA: She got my vote! |
BEING A REPORTER-type person, I did recognize a few names of judges – either because I may have once covered some type of story that occurred in their courtroom, or perhaps because some of these names have popped up on enough ballots throughout the years that they’re somehow stuck in my brain.
Similar
to how I can remember ballplayers of the early 1970s when I was a kid – Johnny Jeter
is just one of many names that takes up valuable brain space that probably
could be better devoted to something more useful in life.
But
for the most part, I don’t know the legal qualifications of the people whom I
voted for – which is exactly what (I suspect) the legal types like about it.
Why get ourselves all worked up worrying about qualifications.
So
long as they look authoritative while wearing a black robe, that’s all that
matters to some people. Even if we wind up with incidents such as the one in at the sixth district circuit courthouse in suburban Markham where a judge let someone else don her robe and get a feel for the job -- even though the person wasn't a judge at all!
OF
COURSE, I suppose I could have followed some of those ridiculous rules that
political people concoct; in particular that one about liking the sound of
Irish ethnicity names.
 |
| I know more about .244 hitter than judges |
If anything, that so-called rule makes me inclined to vote against Irish names when I cast my ballot, figuring they don’t need my vote to win. Heck, there have been some times when I was sarcastically inclined to automatically vote for every Spanish ethnic name on the ballot as a way of mocking the so-called rule.
Not
that such acts are any more responsible. Because in the end, the rule of thumb
that ought to apply is, “You get what you vote for.”
And
if you’re the type who didn’t put any thought into the ballot aside from
wanting to back Donald Trump (or dump all over him), then you deserve whatever
form of political abuse your mind concocts from the actions of government in
coming years.
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment