Election season can be awkward because the process doesn’t always allow the flexibility for voters to express themselves. We have primaries, party slates and candidates who make assumptions from their election results. I voted in the Republican primary six years ago because I wanted to support innovative Senate candidate Herman Cain but I skipped most of the other candidates because I basically wasn’t feeling them.
In 2008, my political friends could have called me a rare S.O.B. because I voted for Saxby, Obama and Bishop (B.O.S. would have had less flair.) Centrists are constantly weighing regional interests, party loyalty and personal views when selecting candidates. While we are months away, I have no idea what I am going to do in the Senate race between two exceptional Georgians who have both served our state well. I do know that my party doesn’t control all of my votes and that people should follow their guts.
The other day I was thinking that I was “ghost” on the other contests in that Republican primary since I was there to “primarily” support Cain. Since people fought some hard for the right to vote, would skipping a contest on the ballot be wrong or a gesture of “none of the above.”
In a related situation, many incumbents have no primary opposition. In a light bulb moment, I thought not voting for an unopposed incumbent in a primary could be away of letting that candidate know that we shouldn’t be taken for granted. Of course, the candidate still advances to the general election but he or she knows that we are weighting our options. Those options might include “ghost” voting in November if we choose—like none of the above. After the primary, a candidate would discover that a significant number of people who voted in other races skipped his name.
For example, the number of new Obama voters who only voted for president is alarming; that situation was flat silly since they didn’t know the importance of other offices. The buzz term this election season is “low information voters” and it was created to label people who get their news from one very opinionated source. To be fair, I think people in my community who vote a straight party slate and assume that a candidate with a “D” on his jersey is 100% “down for the cause” are also “low information voters.”
For sake of full disclosure, the election of President Obama was one of the coolest events of my life; I really like the guy and hope he is successful in improving our great nation. As quiet as it is kept, my appreciation goes out to Republicans who also voted for him and Democrat centrists will give their party’s better candidates a good and fair look this year.
In Georgia, Representative Jim Marshall has wisely balanced his membership in the Democrat Party with the conservative views of large segments of his district. In a perfect world, Marshall would be an independent who is free to vote his mind every time but in this political world, congressmen must slide with their team more often than not. On several key votes, Marshall was ghost for the Democrat team but low information voters don’t know it.
Actually, we never learned if Marshall voted for Obama or McCain but his skipping the Democrat National Convention wasn’t cool with me. In addition to formal nominating a presidential candidate, those conventions are where officials like Marshall fight to pull the control of the party platform nearer the center of America and away from the far left. He is a smart guy and when Obama/Biden needed him, he was ghost. I have never seen a picture of Marshall and Obama—what up with that. But, I remember him stating in campaign ads years ago that he did this and that with President Bush.
Voters in middle Georgia remember Marshall’s quality leadership as mayor of Macon, Georgia, but a little wake up call might be helpful to remind him that we like him but love this President. The Democrat Party can’t control us like sleep. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. is considering supporting a Republican friend running for Obama’s old Senate seat. Can he do that?
Voters in the Democrat primary should consider “ghost voting” by not automatically voting for unopposed Marshall in the primary this summer and if he skips more major votes that the White House needs November could be up in the air. I appericate the kind statements Macon’s current mayor made about Obama during the presidential campaign; he has a bright future. (Wink) While most of our community doesn’t care for Republicans, we occasionally vote for conservatives who might add a voice of reason in their meetings; we vote for Blue Dogs we considering moderate to conservative. Heck, President Obama put several Republicans in his cabinet but only one Blue Dog and zero members of the Congressional Black Caucus. If the GOP takes the Congress, the influence and views of a few reasonable Republicans could be more important to the WH than a Dem with a history of being ghost.
In the old school, we played the Police album “Ghost In The Machine” to death and love the cut “Spirits in the Material World.” That song had the lyric “They subjugate the meek…but it’s the rhetoric of failure.” Today, we are subjugating ourselves by locking in with one group and not listening to valid alternatives. I have always respected the Police because they constantly acknowledge that their music is rooted in the reggae from Jamaica. The current base of the Georgia Democrat Party is rooted in my community and that fact should be remember when we say help the President from our party.
Party politics often centers on political machines, those groups of people who get the vote out in large numbers. Machines often recommend candidates but don’t monitor them once elected. In Tifton, Georgia, two years ago, I would tell people with Obama/Biden stickers that the local Democrat congressman wasn’t really a supporter of the ticket and their mouths would drop—low information voters. Our modern-day “Ghost In The Machine” should be ghost-voting candidates who take us for granted. The political machines wouldn’t like that very much but everyone would be on their toes.
To my GOP friends (all both of you), your whole party seems like a great big machine at times. If a Democrat has listened to you on regional issues, you should ignore national groups who say he or she is not fair and attentive. You guys have some real ghost busters in your camp. Your machine shouldn’t tell candidates to avoid any dialog with those of different opinions.
This ghost voting idea could really be something.
Project Logic Ga 
Classic!!! By far, one of your best works Slyram….
The Albany newspaper has a Bible passage everyday on the op-ed paper and I read it in the morning like a sign of sort. Today, James 1:19,20 says
“Ye know (this), my beloved brethren. But, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”
While I am no angel, I like that and feel that it is timely after the whole Ghost-vote idea yesterday. Brethren or membership in any group is like a two-edge sword. American Express ads say that “membership has privileges” and members of a political party must sometimes “take one for the team” or go down swing like the heroes at the Alamo.
When the Democrats lost the House and Senate in 1994, many a good centrist or moderate made the yes vote for President Clinton’s budget plan with full understanding that they would lose the next election. For Blue Dogs like my boss freshman Rep. Don Johnson and his classmate Marjorie Margolies Mezinsky (MMM), their first term in congress would be their last. But, they made that vote because improving the economy in the long term was more important than trying to be politically safe. The GOP members waved goodbye to MMM when she walked in to make that vote and the plan passed by a single vote so the campaign ads against them could honestly state that this one person could have stop that vote.
It turns out that Clinton was right and that plan put the nation on sound fiscal ground which lead to him leaving the White House with a record surplus. Chelsea Clinton is engaged to MMM’s son Marc. MMM was cool enough to comment on this blog about that historic vote and I saw her on MSNBC with then House Dem leadership member Martin Frost of Texas. She seemed surprised when Frost said that leadership could have given her and a few endangered freshmen a pass or the chance to no vote because safer senior members could have made yes vote rather than no.
It’s a cunning game inside the Beltway and parties allow flexibility for members from swing areas. Obviously, the Democrats couldn’t hold the House and Senate without Blue Dogs so the only only only real important vote for Dems from districts that McCain won is the vote for speaker. Hell, many Blue Dogs privately vote for McCain but that speaker vote is the key.
In the early 90s when Dems had a safe lead in the House, swing district Dem would vote with a few others for a centrist for Speaker or vote present.
With the Bible passage in mind, people should give Democrats like Jim Marshall an opportunity to explain his views, come back fully into the Dem Team and make nice with President Obama. Okay, the last part is funny because Obama and the braintrust in the White House have always been part of the ultimate plan. The simple plan is that the Democrat Party looks like America; it has subsections that differ with each yet arrive at consensus. The vote for speaker keeps the House in Dem control and allows Dems to hold the committee chairmanships and decide what comes to the floor.
So, let’s be “slow to wrath” and let Marshall explain his ghost-like actions. In a strange twist, I think the Far Right loves Marshall being a Dem who dislikes the White House more than they would like to see him become a Republican. That situation is as sweet as Republican Colin Powell and the wife of the Republican Governor of California coming out for candidate Obama. Marshall as a Dem who dislikes Dem policy is too much–it’s like the fast food ads where Wendy or the Burger King is eating somewhere else. If he switched to the GOP, I would have wished him peace like we did when Nathan Deal bounced to be more natural and comfortable.
Regarding “slow to speak,” people have been asking Marshall for years why won’t he switch if he is not feeling the Dem agenda. Why would the liberal groups fund the war chest of Blue Dogs who don’t or won’t support their agenda; we know that money is a leading indicator in American politics. Get the picture. Maybe dude is like a double agent. I am contradicting myself but getting the answers and having this discussion is going to make this election season hella fun.
The link below incldues the MMM comment and a link to the MSNBC interview with her.
https://projectlogicga.com/2008/09/28/democrats%e2%80%99-loyalty-and-the-movies/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/33498298#33498298
Ted, as always you weigh in with thoughtful contributions.
And I don’t think you could be anymore right.