Politics - VA Election Day

Yesterday I sampled three of my co-workers as a group and asked them what was special about today. They had no idea. Granted, they are not all that interested in politics, but they are educated people. I would expect that much of the state is unaware that a few of their neighbors are going to the poll today. I consider that somewhat sad. In any event, I will disclose that I did something today that I have proclaimed to loathe throughout my political voting career. I voted straight ticket without much research or thought. I would have given an independent or Libertarian serious consideration and probably a vote, especially if he were the latter, but there were none to choose from. It would be extremely difficult for me to vote for a Democrat at this point, so why bother with research, right?
This is certainly a change of course from my past. Nationally I have leaned Republican, but locally I've been pretty split. I voted for Warner (D) and thought that the former business was fairly fiscally responsible (in part due to Republican controlled Congress) and did a nice job. I do not regret the vote. I voted for Kaine (D) in the next election. I was not as pleased with his performance, but still not a disaster. So how do we come to the next VA election cycle and I won't consider Democrats? First of all, propelled by recent party success the Democratic party has boldly moved further left. I say have not done much research, but that is not entirely true. I know enough about McDonnell (R) and Deeds (D) to know that Deeds in the most liberal choice for governor the state has seen in some time. I don't particularly like Bolling (R), but again I could not bring myself to consider Wagner (D) for Lt Governor. I truly know nothing about the candidates for Attorney General, but again went with the Republican, assuming that the Democrat is following the liberal charge. Is it unfair to make that assumption? Perhaps, but it brings me to my second reason to go straight ticket, national political issues.
On the surface, it would seem national politics should have little impact on my decisions for local government, and that is usually true. However, local politics can impact national politics and currently the stakes are high at the national level. During the presidential primaries, it was clear to me that I would support pretty much any Republican over any Democrat because of nationalized health care. I oppose most any proposal for nationalized anything. The Federal government is generally incompetent and inefficient in anything it runs. The costs are always rampant. Obama himself talked about the U.S. not being able to sustain the level of spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and health care costs on their current trend. Now, we are to add nationalized health care. I would love everyone to have health care, a 2,000+ sq. ft. home, two new cars, and a steak and potato for every dinner. However, there is a disconnect today in what we expect from our government. Just because something is nice and humanitarian doesn't mean it can or should be given. Things must be earned through production, somebody must pay for any service another person receives, and pay through their labor. Right now we are piling up massive debt because we are living beyond our means, the government is paying out more services than the production it takes from its citizens (taxes). The gap is extremely wide. This proposes to further that gap. As I stated before, a service like this once enacted is almost impossible to undo. If we go to nationalized health care, it will be almost impossible to go back to private health care until the U.S. is bankrupt and is faced with the fact that it cannot pay for all these services. That will be a dark day for the country and the world as the much of the rest of the world depends on our spending for their economic success.
The public has turned against nationalized health care, which is interesting since it voted all these Democrats into office, including Obama, who promised to give it to us. So, it appeared we might get a watered down bill that did not go to nationalized health care. However, the liberals would not accept such a failure, and Reid produced the public option which is a door to nationalized health care. There will likely not be 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster, but the Democrats may use the process of reconciliation to jam the legislation through with only a majority. What does all this have to do with my vote? The more the public pressures Washington to get rid of the public option, the less likely reconciliation will be used. Currently, the best way to apply pressure would be to send a message by way of resounding Republican victories in Virginia and a Republican victory in the governor's race in New Jersey. I hope that's what we see.