Why People Should Vote, and be the Deciders

There's clearly a lot of anger out there, and skepticism about whether people's votes actually count. I happen to be a big believer in voting, which is a trait I got from my grandmother. While she just died at 100 a month ago she didn't miss a single change to cast a ballot in New York City (where she lived after coming to this country in the early 1950s), including this last presidential election. And I vote religiously despite the fact that as a lifelong D.C. resident, I don't even get to vote for a House member with full voting privileges.

One reader asked about what a voter rebellion would look like-I would say it would be a large voter turnout that ends up ousting a number of incumbents. And it's interesting to hear that a MoveOn campaign affected Rep. Nancy Johnson's poll numbers-she's one of the three moderate Connecticut Republicans in trouble that I mentioned in a previous post. One of this year's ironies is that if Democrats end up winning the majority, they'll do so by defeating the very kind of Republicans who are sometimes willing to work with them on the environment and social issues.

I also want to make one observation to the reader who lives in Candace Miller's district: you might be suspicious about the vote count, but the more important point is that Republicans tailored that district for her after the 2000 Census (I have a whole section about that in my book), so it's no surprise she's been winning handily there since she first ran in 2002.