I’m really starting to wonder if the Democratic Party isn’t determined to label themselves “The Party of Morons everywhere.”

I’m a card carrying Democrat, and I have been ever since I registered to vote for the first time. Chances are, unless some sort of truly viable third party comes along, I always will be. I do not vote along party lines, however, and in fact I support several Republican officials here in Florida.

The problem I’m currently having, however, comes from the fact that the Democratic party is making a stink about ballots in our upcoming Gubernatorial primary, and I really think they are making Democrats as a whole look like drooling idiots.

Here’s the situation. As you all well know, we had a wee bit of difficulty here in Florida during the last Presidential election. There was a “confusing” ballot in Palm Beach county that caused a lot of people to vote for the wrong candidate in the election. This was insturmental in helping George Bush win Florida and, subsequently, the election. So we’re all a bit sensitive about our ballots here, and great steps are being taken to insure that this doesn’t happen again. Many counties here have converted to touch screen technology, but those that haven’t will be using the old fashioned paper ballots again.

And this is the crux of the current issue.

The ballot for the gubernatorial primaries has wording that, according to some, will instruct people to select two candidates for governor. Which will cause an overvote. The wording in question is “Choose one pair.” The problem, apparently, is that none of the candidates have chosen a running mate yet, so Democrats are making a stink about the fact that people will vote for two primary candidates. In other words, voting for Bill McBride AND Janet Reno.

My question is, if someone is THAT friggin’ clueless do we really want to cater to them?

I find it a bit insulting that they are assuming we are so uninformed in the process that we would actually think that it’s possible to vote for two candidates in a primary. What’s worse, is that the party leaders seem to think we NEED that protection. They are talking about brining a law suit to get it changed. “Our constituents are stupid,” they seem to be saying, “and we need to protect them from themselves.”

Do we really need to support the belief that Democrats are simpletons who can’t figure out a ballot? We’ve had enough grief about that since the Palm Beach County incident. I know it’s a radical concept, but can’t we rely on voters to educate themselves to the process? Isn’t it reasonable that we expect people to inform themselves about who is going to be on their ballots and what they are voting on? Isn’t that one of our duties as responsible members of the voting society? Why do we want people who would be so clueless as to be uninformed as to what they are voting on to be in the polling places in the first place?

Oh, because stupid people will elect us…I forgot…

On a similar note, I’m constantly amused by the party line voting that so many people exhibit these days. Let’s vote for Jeb just because he’s a Republican. Hey, do you like the FCAT? No? Do you like vouchers going to private schools? No? Are you happy about the fact that the sales tax holiday was suspended this year? No? Still going to vote for Jeb? Yes???

Politics make my head hurt.