Challenging My Father's Viewpoints: Why the Straight-Ticket Sucks

I know there have been a lot of opinion pieces about politics lately, but just hear me out. I won't be quite as bad as most of those.

When it came to the election on November second, I'll admit that I voted largely Democratic. But that was because the Democratic candidates were the ones I consider to have the stances on issues, arguments, and plans. It was not just because I checked the straight-ticket box on the ballot and went on with my day. No, surprisingly, I actually researched the candidates and the issues, then made my decisions.

So I was furious -- no, livid is a better way to describe it -- when my dad told me that he just voted the straight Republican ticket.

I have no problem with him voting Republican at all; that's just the way he was raised (he is a good ole farm boy, after all), and that's the way he's going to stay. My problem lies in that despite being a remarkably intelligent guy, my dad would just take the easy route on voting. And my dad doesn't usually take the easy route on anything. He has to make everything complicated. (Like slicing a stupid pizza. If it's a square, he can't just cut it into a grid. No, he has to cut it the same way you would cut a round one.)

The biggest problem I had with him voting straight-ticket was the fact that in doing so meant he had voted against Proposition B, the legislation imposing laws against puppy mills. The fact that my dad, who gets so absolutely silly over our pure-bred dog in a way that he never got silly over me when I was a child, could vote against a proposition protecting puppies and grown dogs from such cruelty almost made me cry. It didn't seem to matter to him that our Cocker Spaniel could have easily been one of those dogs from the puppy mills.

No, of course, it didn't. Because he thought it was too much of a Democratic legislation. So he voted against it. And then thought there was nothing wrong with voting no on protecting puppies.

Of course, the whole ordeal just made me livid. And it reminded me how much I hate politics . This stupid bipartisanship hasn't helped the government much at all; instead all political venues have now turned into giant schoolyard fights between Republicans and Democrats. Sides always have to be chosen, and it almost always boils down into Democrat versus Republican.

My dad asked me how I had voted. I told him, expecting to get the same reaction I'd gotten when I had told him that I'd voted for Obama. I did.

I probably should have told him that I had voted the gay Democrat ticket. He probably would have had a heart attack.