COLUMN: It Can Be Lonely Out Here

By Tobin Barnes
We voted a week early.

Yup. We took part in the last of the state Presidential primaries of the season.

Voting absentee, we avoided the lines on election day. We’ve voted early before. It’s the smart thing to do. I highly recommend it.

Course, by voting early, you might miss some late-breaking bombshell that might change your mind, but I doubt it.

Whatever, we got the job done.

And sure enough, we cancelled each other out, just like I figured--which isn’t such a smart thing to do.

I imagine splitting the household franchise makes taking the time to vote seem fairly ridiculous. Oh sure, we did our patriotic duty and cast our ballots the way we should as good Americans, but it’s like we didn’t vote at all. Net result, zero for anybody.

There was nothing else on our Democratic ballot. It was just Obama vs. Clinton.

Republicans had all kinds of local office primary choices to make. They’ve got options.

Not us local Democrats. That’s because we’re a distinct minority.

Around here in western SoDak, Democrats seem scarce as hens’ teeth, so we hardly ever get to vote in a primary that makes a difference. Pretty much lucky just to have local Democratic candidates, period.

(If you’re wondering who’s those twenty-some percent still thinking Bush is doing a good job, well, I’m betting a number of them are living right around here.)

This territory has been a conservative bulwark since nigh on inception, with a few notable lapses here and there, but not many. And I guess that’s understandable--western individualists and all that.

When I first moved out here, someone told me I might as well register Republican so I can have a vote in the Republican primaries where virtually the only choices are made. The general elections being pretty much slam-dunks.

And I did that for awhile. But I’m nowhere near a Republican, so I switched back to where I needed to be.

However, it can be lonely, though I’ve sensed a little movement here lately. Not much, but a little.

A couple of my students are working for the Obama campaign, so I asked them for a yard sign. Put it at the end of my driveway. Only one I’ve seen in the whole town.

So obviously, I voted for Obama and my wife voted for Clinton. Tie ball game, except I was one yard sign up on her.

She’s so pro-Hillary we drove down to a Clinton rally in Rapid City a day after we voted. I didn’t want to go, let me tell you--heck, we’d already voted!

But seeing Hillary meant a lot to her.

And though I didn’t want to, I knew I had to go. Code words “It means a lot to me” were in play, and you don’t need a marriage counselor to know what that means.

So there we are in a Rapid City park standing in a seemingly endless line that wraps around the block.

Got to say, it was a revelation.

Had no idea there were so many Democratic supporters in the Black Hills, but heck, there they were. And it just had to be all Democrats. Can’t imagine any of them being Republicans, standing around in line to see a Clinton, for crying out loud.

Took a long time to get in. Bottleneck was security--only one metal detector and just two guys with wands to check everybody out. Evidently, the campaign planners were also surprised to have so many Democrats show up.

We finally got inside the gates in time to hear most of Hillary’s speech, and I’ve got to admit, she did a fine job. It’s one thing seeing those media-wrought political caricatures on TV and quite another seeing them in person twenty yards away. Gives you the eerie feeling that they just might be real people.

Spend some real time around W, and I bet you’d come to like him, too. Might even start thinking his ideas almost make sense.

On our way out of the rally, my wife got not one but two “Hillary for President” yard signs from a campaign worker. Brought them home with her. Made me stop the car when we got to the end of our driveway.

We’re no longer evenly split between Obama and Clinton.

Now it’s two yard signs to one.