Aside from a few people in the food coop proudly sporting little “I voted” stickers on their lapels, you’d barely know it. There’s the occasional “tonight’s gonna be interesting, eh?” but for the most part the Americans we’ve been talking to have kept pretty quiet about it. Maybe they roll their eyes or heave a sigh. There’s not a lot of buzz.
Unless of course you turn on the radio (or worse – the television), which is a non-stop parade of political propaganda. My favourite radio ad goes something like this:
Unless of course you turn on the radio (or worse – the television), which is a non-stop parade of political propaganda. My favourite radio ad goes something like this:
Telephone: Ring, ring!
Politician: Hello?
Special interest group: Hi, I’d like to talk to you about that money we were talking about.
Politician: I believe in honesty. I do not take money from any special interest groups.
Special interest group: Oh, wonderful! Thank you for your honesty.
Politician: You’re welcome. Let’s clean up Washington. Vote for me!
Telephone: Click.
Such a natural conversation. I don’t think it’s staged, do you? Anyway, it’s good for a laugh.
We’re on the Minnesota/Wisconsin border now, so we’re trying to catch up on Wisconsin politics before the big night. We’ve been so immersed in Minnesotan issues – constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage, required voter ID – that we haven’t been paying much attention to the rest of the country. And now we’re only 50 paddling miles from Iowa which is, like Wisconsin, a swing state. If only we’d been a little faster, we could have seen ol’ Mitt in person in Davenport.
Our participation in the election has been minimal. We try to bring it up in conversations, but we don’t always get very far. The office for ‘Democratic Farmers for Labor’ gave us some garden tomatoes for dinner. We stayed with a campaign organizer working on the Democratic Farmers for Labor campaign for congressman in Brainerd.
For the most part though, we listen to coverage over the radio while we eat dinner. Our camp-spots have varied. The days of the good old Department of Natural Resources wilderness canoe campsites are over. We’re in a major shipping channel now, and are more likely to see giant barges and tugboats than the friendly little ‘canoe campsite’ signs from weeks ago. The last few nights we spent on beaches, sandbar islands, and dried swamp islands… listening to election coverage.
We’ll keep you posted… but don’t count on this blog for election results!
Politician: Hello?
Special interest group: Hi, I’d like to talk to you about that money we were talking about.
Politician: I believe in honesty. I do not take money from any special interest groups.
Special interest group: Oh, wonderful! Thank you for your honesty.
Politician: You’re welcome. Let’s clean up Washington. Vote for me!
Telephone: Click.
Such a natural conversation. I don’t think it’s staged, do you? Anyway, it’s good for a laugh.
We’re on the Minnesota/Wisconsin border now, so we’re trying to catch up on Wisconsin politics before the big night. We’ve been so immersed in Minnesotan issues – constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage, required voter ID – that we haven’t been paying much attention to the rest of the country. And now we’re only 50 paddling miles from Iowa which is, like Wisconsin, a swing state. If only we’d been a little faster, we could have seen ol’ Mitt in person in Davenport.
Our participation in the election has been minimal. We try to bring it up in conversations, but we don’t always get very far. The office for ‘Democratic Farmers for Labor’ gave us some garden tomatoes for dinner. We stayed with a campaign organizer working on the Democratic Farmers for Labor campaign for congressman in Brainerd.
For the most part though, we listen to coverage over the radio while we eat dinner. Our camp-spots have varied. The days of the good old Department of Natural Resources wilderness canoe campsites are over. We’re in a major shipping channel now, and are more likely to see giant barges and tugboats than the friendly little ‘canoe campsite’ signs from weeks ago. The last few nights we spent on beaches, sandbar islands, and dried swamp islands… listening to election coverage.
We’ll keep you posted… but don’t count on this blog for election results!
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