Saturday, January 7, 2012

Voters and Town Hall Meetings

Every town hall meeting seems packed. Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, New Gingrich, Rick Santorum all draw full audiences (though of course the respective campaigns carefully choose venues depending on the expected crowds to ensure the venues look full). Even Jon Huntsman is drawing decent crowds. Looking at the events, one would think this is a multi-way race, and that all the candidates will get similar number of votes.

But the key point is not all voters attend town hall meetings. Most see some ads, look at some news, look at endorsements. And they cause elections to turn a certain way. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone who voted attended a town hall meeting? An informed voter is the best voter.

Some time ago when we had a local community meeting to decide whether we should have a rotary or traffic lights at a nearby intersection, folks who attended really knew the pros and cons. They had done their research. It was a lively and informed dialogue. It is a pity that all voters are not able spend the time understanding all dimensions of issues and candidates. A democracy can only work well when everyone is equally well-informed and invested in the process! I can't blame it all on lack of interest - people who need 2 or more jobs to make ends meet simply do not have the time.

Pride

People have such pride in their country. A veteran at a Newt Gingrich meeting asked for an autograph on a photo of himself and Newt in 1995. He choked in front of the whole group, so proud was he of getting his picture with the speaker of the house when was in service.

With pride comes the real deep concern that the country they take so much pride in is changing to something they are not familiar with, to something different. The country they grew up in is what they are familiar with, and they so firmly believe that that is the right way. They might not know much about other models. They want to elect leaders who will continue the country they take pride in will continue to be the same.

This veteran had pride in his country and leaders, it was sad to see how un-leader like politicians really are. Concerned only about themselves, not the country and the people.

Fear. Strength. Best place in the world.

Fear works miraculously well in an election. Nothing attracts a voter to a leader like the feeling that that leader will protect them in a dangerous situation. To feel the warmth of protection, one has to feel fear first. So, Iran.

Strong is another word that resonates. We should not be weak, but should be strong, parrot politicians. Strong, standing up to bullies, bad people. We should be able to stare down people over the barrel of a gun. We should not be seen as weak in the eyes of the world, but strong. Strong, so that noone dares to do anything against us.

Prosperity for children and grand children is good, but nothing like the feeling that we live in the best place in the world to achieve it. It is not nice to think that there are other countries in the world which might more successful. We are the most successful people. This experiment, America, is by far the most successful country in the world. How can it possible go wrong or need changing? We won't face that.

The Republican Primaries are in New Hampshire

After all the action in Iowa, the candidates have all landed in New Hampshire. The action here has been mostly muted till now, probably because Romney is the perceived front runner, given that he was the governor of Massachusetts. Jon Huntsman has been living in the state, and the local Nashua Telegraph interviewed all the candidates, both the well-known and the lesser-known ones (this time they held some interviews at Nashua High School, with students organizing the whole thing and telecasting them live on the internet - pretty cool). Standard primary stuff, but the buzz was missing, the buzz of having most of the state and also national attention focused on the race.

After Iowa, the buzz is here. The fun begins for primary watchers like me!

January 4, 2012.