NP: John Cage, 4'33"

Okay, so I'm getting myself in trouble over on Metroblogging Chicago with my stance on this election. Which is making me feel both defensive and a little guilty.

Look, everybody has their line in the sand when it comes to civic duty. My line is between primaries and general elections. It's not like I'm anti-voting, or militantly apathetic or anything. What is becoming clear is that there has not been enough information to disabuse me of the notion that there is no such thing as an independent ballot in a primary, and that this is a parochial exercise better left to those who have an interest. With no property and no kids, any interest I might have is going to be nuanced in the extreme, and so the balance of caring/not caring swings hard toward not bothering.

One thing this does make me realize is that I'm less and less connected with the local versus the global when it comes to governmental issues. I know a lot about what's going on nationally, but not as much about my own backyard anymore. So if there is some hot-button issue that's really going to affect me based on who becomes Cook County Board President, or if I could vote for a Democrat for State Senator and a Republican for Governor at this stage, I just don't know about it. This is a slightly bigger issue, in that I'm sort of stuck with the e-mailed Sun-Times as my primary source of local news, and that doesn't quite cut it. I'm not happy about that, but if the alternative is having to read the Tribune every day, again, I'm sort of stuck with it.