Election day in Indiana

Hard as this is for us to believe, our votes actually matter in this primary. And it appears people are voting in record numbers. For example, take absentee ballots alone, and only for Monroe County (Bloomington:)

As noted in the Bloomington Herald Times:

Surveying a line of people still waiting to vote early Monday afternoon, Monroe County Clerk Jim Fielder said he couldn’t recall a busier lead-up to a primary election.

“Never,” he said. “I’ve been around this since 1979 ... and I’ve never seen a primary like this. Period.”

In fact, with 10,128 people voting before Monday’s early-vote deadline, the early turnout for this year’s primary is just about the same percentage as the overall turnout in 2004’s primary, or about 15 percent of the county’s 73,000 voters, he said.

Monroe’s 2004 primary drew 14,002 voters.

“We’ve had general elections where we haven’t had that kind of turnout,” Fielder said.

Need more context? For this year’s primary election, 10,128 voted early in Monroe County. In comparison, 1,886 absentee votes were cast in the 2004 primary and 2,308 in the 2006 primary.

As for me, I've already voted for the 'hope' candidate, Barack Obama... although I'm not sure I feel any real hope myself. The super-delegates will have the final say. And they are just more Washington 'Big Business' politics-as-usual. They will have special interests at heart; just like nearly every 'representative' we sent to the Capitol in the last election that we thought would pull us out of this downward slide.

The Democrats we sent to Washington in the last election did nothing. They couldn't clean up the epic federal corruption tied to the war -- they couldn't jump-start the rebuilding process leftover from Katrina. They wrung their hands and complained that they didn't have the power to stop Bush and his runaway monarchy. They didn't enforce subpoenas. They did nothing to stop or even slow war spending, or rampant war profiteering in Iraq.

Meanwhile, they dined -- business as usual -- with the big oil, big coal, big Pharma lobbyists and made whatever promises were required for 2008 campaign dollars. For all the talk -- candidates saying that 'they hear us' -- corporate campaign contributions do the real talking.

Government of the Corporation, by the Corporation and for the Corporation.

Would Barack Obama make a difference? I think he is our best hope. Hillary and McCain are entrenched in the system as it is; although McCain along with Russ Feingold at least tried, in the past, to push campaign finance reform through Congress (unsuccessfully.)

So sure, I am stewing in doubt. Apparently, I'm not alone.

If the clients at Hockman’s beauty salon are any reflection of the masses, voters are feeling apprehension and hope.

“Everyone, everyone that comes in here says we need change — big change. And at the same time, they are worried that maybe we won’t get that. Not with any candidate.”

Not until we throw the money-changers out of the temple of democracy. And who will do that?