It didn't take me very long to fill in my advance ballot today. There were only 3 Democrats on the whole damn thing. Not one Democrat ran for a county position. I didn't even bother to vote for the repuglicans who are running. This is Kansas, they don't need my vote.
Even though this is Kansas and my vote for Obama/Biden won't matter, it still felt good to vote for that ticket.
On this day when George McGovern is more in the next world than this one, my thoughts went back to the presidential election of 1972. While not old enough to vote, I was more than old enough to campaign for McGovern and work in the Ford County Democratic Headquarters. McGovern promised to end the war in Vietnam and said that the Watergate break in was something to pay attention to. He was a great liberal who was a champion of the underdog, the blue collar worker and the common person. Unfortunately, the voters of this country felt otherwise and McGovern was beat by Nixon.
Two years later, Nixon became the only president to resign in disgrace.
I've always been proud that I was a "McGovern Democrat" and, in fact, still am. A signed book by George McGovern is one of my most prized possessions.
As long as there are people like me and like Barack Obama fighting the good fight, George McGovern will remain very much a part of this world even while his soul resides in the next.
