This rant comes courtesy of someone who in middle age has decided it is time he do something, like vote, because those of us who voted in the past had let him down, and my having been informed I certainly could not be considered progressive because I do not use a capital P when I write down what my political leanings are.

I drew my first political cartoon when I was 13 years old. Up until then I was hoping to be the next Charles Schultz and was attempting to come up with characters for a comic strip. Although I was not yet into politics, I was in an environment where the adults were. After all, my family was Boston Irish which meant my grandparents were of the generation when the Boston Irish had established themselves in the politics of the city, and ended the “Irish need not apply” days, and memories of Honey Fitz and James Michael Curley were fresh. Politics was a popular topic mostly because people were watchful of losing what had been gained and there was that whole Thomas Jefferson price of freedom being vigilance thing.

I heard my adult relatives often talk politics at gatherings, and around election time it was clear where the adults stood.

I was sitting at the kitchen table talking to my mother while she was ironing clothes. Barry Goldwater had announced that he would run against LBJ, and in light of LBJ’s having replaced JFK because of the assassination thing, Goldwater replacing LBJ was unthinkable, especially to the Boston Irish Catholic crowd.

I took the paper bag that was sitting on the kitchen table, and with a nearby black crayon, drew a caricature of Goldwater on it, and put it on my head as a mask. My mother and I laughed, and my interest in political cartoons was born.

I continued doing cute cartoons through high school and college, but also drew political ones on occasion.

To do the political cartoons I had to be up on political happenings.

In my twenties I began my active political involvement.

Being active in my Union meant I had to attend meetings, rallies, and political events at which I met not only the politicians, but their supporters and detractors who ranged from the homeless to the most well-heeled. I heard what people liked and disliked, what solutions might solve problems, and what of past actions where successful while others failed.

I was involved in the process in small towns and big cities on both coasts and in the middle.

The people with whom I worked were liberals trying to make progress in areas beneficial to the middle class, working Americans, minorities, women, the GLBT community, and having the rich Americans helping to take the financial burden of running the country off the backs of the middle class.

But no matter how many people showed up to rallies and cheered us on, those numbers fell off when it came time to vote.

When Reagan was elected the Democrats gathered on one floor of the Parker House in Boston while Republicans gathered a few floors above waiting for the vote results. At 30, I was one of the youngest people in the room. When the results came in, to add to our disappointment a large group of Republicans, all dressed in identical suits and identical ties that mimicked Reagan’s preferred look came to the door of the large room we were in and mocked us. It was anything but gracious winning, and most striking about the group was that they were all in their twenties. While they were the conservative future of the country, our people seemed to be the liberal past.

The major point of irony for me would be the statements made after Ayanna Presley won in Boston. It was stated that her victory showed that there was dissatisfaction with the status quo and with the establishment, and that it was the new voters who made that victory possible.

First, if she won the majority vote, some of that establishment had to have voted for her, and secondly, if the new voters were required to make that happen, assuming that these new voters weren’t just 18 year olds, those new voters could have voted in earlier elections, but didn’t. As one of those liberals, actually progressive in action but not in the new name, I have always wondered at the low voter turnout that didn’t help bring about change but enabled the status quo, and asked where everyone else was. Imagine if these “new voters”, who aren’t all young, had been there in the past.

This means you will be able to achieve an erection. purchase generic cialis discover these guys Erectile dysfunction http://appalachianmagazine.com/2015/01/21/lincolns-words-regarding-the-constitutionality-of-west-virginia/ cialis from canada shakes up the man when he comes to know that he is suffering from this life-threatening problem. Do not Use THAT purchase at pharmacy levitra generika Referring A Person – Many beginners make this mistake belong to the use of “That.” You must keep in your mind that never uses “THAT” when you are going to indicate towards a person. “THAT” is used for referring objects. “Who or Whom” is used for referring individuals. What is propecia?Have you buy viagra italy come across this pill ever before in your life. For someone to tell me they voted this time because those who voted in the past had done so incorrectly and did not meet their expectations brings no guilt on me, but does have me ask them why they sat back. To be told by the young voters and the newly voting older people that their votes out numbered mine and those like me, apparently assuming I had voted differently than they, means they could have brought about change much earlier had the voted then. They have not cancelled me, they have finally joined me.

I attend a lot of political meetings and rallies. Rallies are showy things that make a loud statement about what many people think, want, support, and oppose. But they are of no practical value if they are not followed with political participation.

In 2009 I sat in the auditorium of a majority minority high school in the Buckle of the Bible Belt watching the inauguration of President Obama. The future belonged to the students. At the midterms that followed the possibility was lost to inactivity as those who opposed Obama went out and voted while those who were glad he was president bathed in the glow of the false light that things had permanently changed.

The seat once held by the Lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy, went to a Republican because the Democrat had not eaten a hot dog in front of Fenway Park, and for some that was enough to reject her. She, assuming she would win, tepidly campaigned and lost. She needed to be taught a lesson, so people chose the person that said he would be someone to dismantle Obamacare and support what would stymie the president’s agenda. Who was the object of their lesson?

People who came of voting age during the days of Obama sat out mid terms and primaries. They wanted much and hoped for much, but did not support either. Things were supposed to happen, but, surprise, they didn’t.

But, as it was what I had seen the previous forty years, it was no surprise to me, it was infuriating.

Barnstable County on Cape Cod has the oldest population of any East Coast county until you get to Florida, and within that county the town of Dennis has the oldest population. When I lived there I was involved in poll watching, which means representatives of political parties sit near the check-in table and check off the names of members of their political parties as people step forward to identify themselves to get a party ballot at primaries, or a complete ballot at general elections when you can only note number of voters not political parties.

As was expected those who came to vote were older people, many retirees who had moved to the Cape, while noticeably absent were younger people. Considering that the town with the oldest population on the East Coast had a couple of elementary schools and a middle school there, and the students at them were not the children of the senior citizens, there was a whole group of younger people who were just not voting.

When in 2016 the voters on the Cape chose a 30 year old as their state senator, the pronouncement that it was the younger and newly voting older people, tired of the status quo only meant to me that these people could have already been controlling the local politics had they been voting.

With the election of Trump people have become energized, but unfortunately ignoring any introspection that could reveal that inactivity has consequences, I have been told by many people, and not just the under thirty crowd, but the older crowd who should have been voting, that they have become politically active because the old activists had let them down.

However, it is not necessarily a question of my having voted for the wrong guy, but that I had to vote for the guy their inactivity in primaries left me with.

No, they let themselves and those older activists down.

I am certainly glad that people are stepping up now to undo the damage of apathy, but it is important to point out that they are not replacing me, but have finally joined with me.

Ayanna Presley is not pushing out the old guard. For some of us in that old guard, someone like her has finally shown up.

If the statistics that show the majority of voters at mid-terms are old and white, change that. Out number us!

Perhaps what I and others have been fighting for the last forty years will finally happen.