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Chris Kuhn

Editor, skirt! Tampa Bay

I'm an outspoken thirtysomething who has lived in the Tampa Bay area since 1992, full of useless facts on just about every facet of pop culture. I'm passionate about vegetarianism without passing judgment. I love to laugh. If we can't talk politics, music, movies, sports, TV or current events, you'...

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The Deed's Been Done

Wednesday will be interesting. I’ll either wake up tomorrow feeling quite hopeful about the future or perhaps I’ll roll over and sleep through the next four years. I know I’ve been absent from the blog community for a little while but I’ve had a topic in my head for a few weeks that I wanted to tackle but just wasn’t sure where to start or if I should. Politics. My politics, to be exact. Today’s as good a day as any, I guess. Election Day.

I voted this morning. No absentee ballot or early voting for me. I wanted my voting sticker to wear all day and gosh darn it, I wanted to fil in the ovals myself and scan that puppy in for my vote. And you know what? Afterwards, I felt so exhilarated. It was an honor to place my vote this morning. I was a bit surprised at my reaction. Six months ago, I wasn’t as enthusiastic about my candidate. Now, I can’t wait for him to take office. (I even posed with him – well, sorta – when we visited Michelle Cyr of AARP, Divided We Fail...you’ll get to meet her in our December issue of skirt!)

Was I born a Democrat? Probably. And I do say “born” because ever since I can remember, it was the only avenue of thinking for me. I’ve told friends it just fits like a glove to me. If I wrote up a list of all of the key issues and general platforms of each party, nine times out of ten – hell, quite possibly ten out of ten –  I’m going to fall under the Dem umbrella. It just is a perfect fit. Sure, I’ll vote outside my party if I feel the candidate is more qualified or has a proven record of success, according to me. I did today in fact. I think I voted for three or four Republicans.

But I have not yet and can’t imagine that I’ll ever vote for a Republican presidential candidate. So far, since my very first election – Michael Dukakis vs. George HW Bush – I haven’t even come close to voting GOP even though as I’ve admitted in an earlier column, that I did lose my mind in one election and go independent (clearly under some kind of sick spell or something).

I’ve always felt that my political party simply understands the common person’s plight more than the Republicans, I just do. And guess what? I’ve always been part of that population and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I know deep down that should my financial picture ever change, there are still enough core beliefs that tie myself to the Democratic philosophy but I think this has been the foundation of my attachment to the party. I truly believe in my heart that if the poor and middle class are doing better financially, this is the key to the entire country prospering – businesses staying open, jobs secured, and the wealthy continuing to do well through it all. I guess I just don’t see what’s the problem with that picture. As a humanist, I can’t see how one human being wouldn’t want to see another human being do well for the sake of everybody.

Perhaps it also was my growing up in elite Naples where the wealthy Northerners traveled each winter to their second (or third or fourth!) home and being part of what felt like only a handful of lower to middle-class families that resided on the north side of town. My parents always took care of me – we never wanted for anything but looking back at what other families were buying and doing, I also see that we were far behind the Joneses in so many ways. I always watched my mom and dad work so hard and be creative devising new ways to save money and earn more. Yet we always seemed to be behind.

And I really do remember sitting in middle school and wondering when President Reagan would blow up the world. To a seventh grader, everything in class was about those “awful communists” and the threat of “nuclear attack.” I so worried at the age of 11 and 12 that our buddy in charge was going to do it to them before they did it to us. That seemed to be the prevailing philosophy. We seemed so close to the brink of disaster. And throughout all of this, my folks continued to work hard in retail jobs, cleaning houses and finally launching their own business. The wealthy customers they worked for kept getting richer, and we kept barely getting by. As I was moving into my formative high school years and started reading works by the great philosophers and thinkers in government, religion and politics, I felt my mind expanding, my doubts growing about the status quo and my beliefs shaping up much more clearly. I knew I was a Democrat in 1984. Perhaps I could have helped Mondale...if they would have just let this fourteen-year-old hit the booth.

I finished my last two years of college at FSU in Tallahassee, graduating in ‘92. I remember coming home one evening after class and war had been launched under W’s daddy. Of course no one I knew really understood what we were there for, but we quickly understood that we needed to get to the gas station fast or be stuck in a two-hour wait at the pump the next day. Tallahassee was the first place I ever lived before or since, where I felt part of a majority – quite a few Dems in that area. Yet surrounding it, there was definitely a sense that time had not progressed quite as fast as other parts of the country. It was only on my adventures through Northern Florida and southern Georgia that I discovered convenience stores that were selling racist merchandise, mamie dolls of all things, and it was the 1990s  for Pete’s sake! I was dumbfounded that time had apparently stood still in some of these places and wonder now if it’s ever caught up there sixteen years later. Had they heard of the Civil Rights movement? Were they aware that the war between the states ended and that they lost, so they could take down that damn confederate flag? I’d imagine Obama’s candidacy must be major watercooler talk at those businesses today.

This is such an incredibly rich time for all of us – so much hope and so much potential could lie ahead of us. Will Americans make the choice to tap into this hope and potential or let their fear of the unknown get in the way? I sure do wonder.

I don’t begrudge anybody who filled in the circle above my personal choice today. I hold nothing against someone with a difference of opinion, though I will admit I find it very difficult to understand it or relate.

I commend any of you that took time to learn about the candidates and head to your precinct’s voting area. It’s much too important a decision to ignore. Know who you are, decide who you can identify with most and if you’re not quite sure, look at your own life and remind yourself where you’ve come from and what matters most to you and your family. Then vote with your heart and conscience. But by all means, vote.