Watching New Hampshire
These days of course you couldn’t get me to v*te unless you stuck a gun in my ear. But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the show.
And I’ve always found it quite a show. Some of my fondest memories from childhood involve trying to keep my eyes open late-late at night as election returns trickled in. Sometimes when I couldn’t make it, Mom would wake me up around midnight to tell me who the new governor or president or senator would be.
When the TV networks perfected the art of calling elections seconds after the polls closed, they ruined that. But the Internet has brought a little of the excitement back. Never mind that the “experts” called the New Hampshire primary for Romney hours ago. The v*tes are still being counted and an interactive AP/Google map is letting us watch, precinct by precinct, district by district.
With 75 percent of the v*tes counted, it’s just as the experts said — Romney 38 percent, Paul (bless his heart) just under 24 percent.
Did you ever think you’d see Ron Paul polling at 24 percent, beating the cr*p out of candidates anointed by the mainstream?
But the map tells an even more interesting story. Look at all those green spots. Those are the areas Ron Paul won. A lot of green, snaking its way down the west side of the state. That’s encouraging.
I wait for results to come in from Keene, that bastion of Free Staters. (Nothing yet; the big suspense of the night.) (In the end, the big disappointment of the night.)
It’s true that most of those places Ron Paul took today are small ones. Take a look at Millsfield. Paul got 53.3 percent of the vote there. All eight votes worth. In his “big win” areas, he got so few votes — 125, 77, 133, 149, 164 — that it seems marvelously strange that such tiny totals are being reported to the entire globe. Still, in those polling places, he got way more than all those establishment hacks, more than New Englander Romney, the man the media has already crowned.
And we all know it’s true that none of this means anything. At least not in the big political picture. No doubt Candidate Standard-Brand R or Candidate Standard-Brand D will be elected president next November and things will keep rolling down the road to catastrophe.
But you look at those green lights shining out of the New Hampshire hinterlands … and doesn’t it give you at least a hint of hope? Doesn’t it tell you we’ve got more friends out there than we know? Doesn’t it confirm that “… Something’s happening here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?” That somewhere, in the backwoods and the small towns and the hearts and minds of Americans, a very healthy sort of independence is putting down deep roots?
January 10th, 2012 at 10:14 pm
Yes. It does. I’m feeling sparkly. ;^)
Excellent read…thanks!
January 10th, 2012 at 10:16 pm
Oh…and “bless his heart” indeed. :^)
January 10th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
I’m enjoying picturing you sparkly, Beth. :-)
January 10th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
Just like fine champagne, girl! :^D Lovely to see the old-school Claire peeking out!
January 10th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
Now I know why I keep coming back to your blog all the time. You give me hope for the future. The large cities will probably crumble and fall, but the small towns will be the ones to rebuild and make the future.
January 11th, 2012 at 1:50 am
One the one hand This Is an island of sanity, of calmness,… but on the other, I live in the Soviet America Empire of the 21st century and I don’t think anyone fared well under similar systems. A Person would have to have their head stuck in the sand or something to think otherwise, imho.
Cities may crumble and fall, but People don’t crumble, they lash out and look for scapegoats.
As a Rothbardian I don’t encourage People to vote, I’ve Never voted, but this one time, in return for what Ron Paul has written (even-though he is a Federalist) I voted for Ron Paul and will vote for him again if given the chance, but for anyone else,… it ain’t happening. I don’t vote for him because he would attain power, but because he educates People and stimulates them to think.
January 11th, 2012 at 6:55 am
I think that those of us who love freedom will always have hope of some sort. Hope is a component of our love of freedom, no? I’m reading a book called EVERYDAY STALINISM. Even in the worst of times in Moscow, some people clung to hope.
Let’s face it, we live in an occupied land. But what goes around comes around. Nothing lasts forever.
I really thought they were going to rig it so that Huntsman would come in 2nd. So glad it didn’t go down that way. NH was….Shiny!
January 11th, 2012 at 10:39 am
In NH, politics is somewhat of a local pastime for far more of the general population than in most other places. It’s common practice for “regular,” non-paid citizens to stand outside the polling places holding signs for their preferred candidates — and to politely ask people entering the polls for their vote. Unlike a lot of other places, given the very small populations in many jurisdictions (think Millsfield again), some elections often are decided by just a few votes here and there.
In 2008, it was pretty lonely holding a Ron Paul sign. I was there all day, and most people entering/leaving my local small-town polling place gave me that “nutcase” look, while only the rare passer-by gave me the double thumbs up. One or two people at most joined me for a couple hours.
In 2012, Ron Paul signs dominated by a huge margin. A *CROWD* showed up — willing to stand outside in NH in January (brrr….) — that absolutely dwarfed anyone else willing to do the same for any other candidate. People who admitted they had no clue four years ago were now braving the cold to do their part. A couple people spent the whole day — but it wasn’t necessary to keep up the crowd.
My favorite (paraphrased) quote from a fellow sign-holder: “I didn’t know much four years ago. It started last year when I began homeschooling…” Savor that, as you realize what it means beyond yesterday’s election.
A substantial portion of that 23% didn’t just vote Ron Paul — they “figured it out” despite the media blackout, and got educated far above and beyond Ron Paul as a candidate. That’s not going away.
January 11th, 2012 at 11:29 am
Dana — Thanks for the up close and personal view from a guy willing to stand in the New Hampshire cold all day for freedom. “That’s not going away.” That’s encouraging.
Clark — Your words back Dana’s nicely. I must admit that I’ve had thoughts of v*ting for Paul for similar reasons. Just to make that statement. I haven’t v*ted since 1994, and even then it was with a sense of doing some last-ditch act of desperation (and had predictably crappy results). But something is happening here …
January 13th, 2012 at 1:39 pm
I’m a poll worker in my area, which gives me the chance to get a feel for the political climate better than any media source could give. People may still be focused on voting, but they’re getting darned sick of being told what their options will be. I still maintain that if “burn DC down and start over” had been on the ballot in the last senatorial election, it would’ve won by a landslide.