The First Time I Voted for President
10/31/2004 23:55 Filed in: Politics
Once an Independent, always an Independent...
Left: The 1980 Reagan/Anderson Debate
Well... there's the first time I voted, and the first time I legally voted. No, this isn't a tale from Florida. Rather, the year was 1980 and I was in junior high. We ran a mock election like a lot of schools do, letting all the students vote for president. I guess it brings chuckles to compare the votes of children to the actual votes of their parents.
They picked three of us to represent the candidates: Ronald Reagan (Republican candidate), Jimmy Carter (Incumbent Democrat candidate) and John B. Anderson (Independent candidate). I didn't know anything about any of the candidates except for Jimmy Carter who had been president for the last four years. They picked me to represent John Anderson, the Independent, and I faithfully went to the library to do my research so that I could make my two minute campaign speech before the school. I guess that was slightly prophetic, too, since I am an independent today.
After we all three made our campaign speeches, it came time for the vote. When everything was said and done, Anderson (who garnered 7 million votes in the actual election--not too shabby for an independent) got about half a dozen votes (I guess I probably had a few faithful friends). Reagan came in second and Jimmy Carter won in a landslide.
Our votes didn't reflect the way the nation voted at all, but the whole process was a lot of fun. It was the first time I ever paid any attention to a presidential election. I even felt like I had something at stake in it. Even if my candidate didn't win, I believed I was part of the process.
I still choose to be a part of that process, but today my vote counts for something. Yours does, too. On Tuesday, go exercise your American privilege and vote for the candidate of your choice.
Well... there's the first time I voted, and the first time I legally voted. No, this isn't a tale from Florida. Rather, the year was 1980 and I was in junior high. We ran a mock election like a lot of schools do, letting all the students vote for president. I guess it brings chuckles to compare the votes of children to the actual votes of their parents.
They picked three of us to represent the candidates: Ronald Reagan (Republican candidate), Jimmy Carter (Incumbent Democrat candidate) and John B. Anderson (Independent candidate). I didn't know anything about any of the candidates except for Jimmy Carter who had been president for the last four years. They picked me to represent John Anderson, the Independent, and I faithfully went to the library to do my research so that I could make my two minute campaign speech before the school. I guess that was slightly prophetic, too, since I am an independent today.
After we all three made our campaign speeches, it came time for the vote. When everything was said and done, Anderson (who garnered 7 million votes in the actual election--not too shabby for an independent) got about half a dozen votes (I guess I probably had a few faithful friends). Reagan came in second and Jimmy Carter won in a landslide.
Our votes didn't reflect the way the nation voted at all, but the whole process was a lot of fun. It was the first time I ever paid any attention to a presidential election. I even felt like I had something at stake in it. Even if my candidate didn't win, I believed I was part of the process.
I still choose to be a part of that process, but today my vote counts for something. Yours does, too. On Tuesday, go exercise your American privilege and vote for the candidate of your choice.