Playing chess with presidential politics
By Staff
Leada Gore, Editor
When it comes to politics, my husband and I are often on different sides of the aisle.
And even that tends to fluctuate.
Like many Americans, our vote depends more on the issue and the people involved rather than the party with which they are affiliated. We’re the classic “moderate” voters, the ones all the candidate are going after this year.
Greg likes to make it seem I am the more liberal one of the two. Sometimes he’s right, other times I just let him think he is. He’s fond of telling me “I know who you’re voting for” even though half the time he’s wrong. He’s also fond of telling me he will make sure to go the ballot box to cancel out my vote. This is usually about the time I inform him that if it wasn’t for me he wouldn’t know what day the primary was, much less remember to go vote at the right location.
He usually concedes this point.
We discussed the recent presidential primary a lot around my house, mainly because neither of us was particularly fired up about any one candidate. I did cast my vote and receive my “I voted” sticker, which has become the proverbial gold star of civic participation.
Greg went to vote, too, only after I reminded him, of course.
I had to admit it was a unique strategy, sort of like a chess match where you give up a pawn in order to grab the queen.
We sat up that night and watched the news to see the primary results. We learned that, basically, not much had been decided. The Republican candidate who won Alabama didn’t win much else so his chances were fading. The Republican who won the most states that night didn’t win Alabama but as we tried that succession thing once and the results weren’t great, I imagine if he’s elected he will be our president, too.
The Democratic ticket was even more confusing. The two candidates are running an extremely close race and no one knows how it will turn out. It seems there are people known as “Super Delegates” whose votes at the convention count for more than someone who’s considered less super.
Clear as mud.
As for the Gores, like the rest of America, we will just keep watching and, when appropriate, vote. And getting our sticker, because that’s what really matters anyway.
