Well, and I voted today. It’s the primary here in Connecticut, and we have a couple of reasonable races. For the most part, I have no strong feelings about any of the candidates; I will happily support whichever of them My Party nominates today against the Other Party’s nominees. I wound up having slight preferences in each of the four races, though.
Actually, that’s not quite true. The two fellows who are running for my Party’s ballot line for State Comptroller are very different indeed, and I would much prefer the liberal guy to the conservative. That’s not to say I wouldn’t vote for the conservative guy against the Republican, who will undoubtedly be even more conservative (although the Republican nominee seems to be one of those guys who hangs around on the ballot without really running, so the primary is perhaps more important), but that was one where I could really make the case that one guy was much better than the other.
The big race, of course, is the Governor’s, where two perfectly good candidates are running, and I would be happy with either. I came down on the Dan Malloy side, ultimately, not because I think Ned Lamont would be a bad Governor, but because I think Dan Malloy will have a bit of an easier time working with a difficult Legislature in difficult times. And for Secretary of the State, I went with the younger, slightly more left-leaning fellow rather than the old party hack—I usually go with the party hack (as I did at the top of the ballot), but I was persuaded by this guy. Plus, it’s always nice to vote for somebody who isn’t white, you know? Not that the color thing is a criterion in itself, but like I keep saying about the Bechdel test, there’s a cumulative thing going on, too.
Which I should probably put in a different way, something like this.
Today, in four candidates, I voted for a woman, a (n open) homosexual, a Jew, a Latino, and a grandparent. Doesn’t that sound like a bucket full of diversity?
Today, in four candidates, I voted for three white people, three men, three Christians, three (open) heterosexuals and four married people. Doesn’t that sound like a bucket full of privilege? Well, three-quarters full or more.
I’m perfectly happy voting for Dan Malloy—I’ll be perfectly happy voting for Ned Lamont in October, if he wins today. I don’t mind voting for the straight white Christian guy. I don’t mind voting for the straight white Christian guy two or three or four times. But I will admit that it’s nice to have a bit of a change, now and then.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.