No One Has to Know Who You Vote For, Especially the Man You Live With

When in Maine I don’t watch TV. We have a TV, but I don’t even go in the room where the TV is. That is saying something because we only have a couple of rooms. At home I have a TV in the majority of our rooms and I have it on a lot. I wake up and watch the news. I watch the news while cooking dinner. I get in bed and often watch something. Not in Maine.

Last night was the opening night of the DNC convention. I don’t usually watch political conventions, but for some reason both Russ and I wanted to watch last night. We got in bed and Russ pulled up C-Span on his giant I-pad. We watched intently until past midnight when his small blond curly hair four year old grandson Beau walked Joe off the stage hand-in-hand.

It looked like Biden needed a hand as he carefully walked away. He had been cheered and chanted for, but clearly it was the right decision to bow out gracefully. He can get a lot done in his last five months and leave a great legacy, but then spend his time with the grandchildren he clearly adores.

The things I took away from watching night one is the democrats have a deep bench. They also seemed more excited than they have in years. This is a big change from the Clinton years. The other is that Democrats appeal to women right now in a big way.

The three women and one man who spoke about abortion got right to the heart of the matter. The young women who had been molested by her father, her words, she meant raped as she was pregnant by him at the age of 12, made the biggest impact.

I had lunch today with my friend Sheppy Vann and we talked about how women are the most important voters this year. She told me of a women she knows who told her that she didn’t vote the way her husband had wanted her to and Sheppy told her he never had to know.

When you go out to vote you go ahead and vote for the person you want and stick that ballot in the machine and no one will ever know. Women need to vote for our own best interests. That means not voting for people who want to take your rights away. Generations of women worked too hard to get those rights and once taken away they won’t come back in your lifetime. You may not care about or ever need an abortion yourself, but if they take that away it is just the beginning. We can’t let governments try and control us. It is the most important issue that is being hidden from you. We can not go back to a world where some men think they have all the power and say.

Thank goodness I am married to a secure man who is not threatened by a strong woman. If I wasn’t I might be in jail.