Right Wing Nation

I haven’t written this up (though I’ve told it to several people), but I was inspired by an almost identical account over on PA Pundits.

The first thing you need to know is that everything but getting your DL here is privatized. Plates? Get them at the AAA, Tri-County, or any number of other places. Registration? Ditto. The only thing the DMV does is DLs. That’s it.

Now, you’d think they’d be pretty efficient with that little to do, right? Wrong.

So I drove to the DMV, more or less right across from the prison. I was there right after they opened, and when I walked in, I was the only person there who didn’t work there.

The first part was a breeze. I walked up to the woman, gave her my IDs, and bang! she gave me the card and told me to take it to the people over on the other side, where they’d take my picture and get me my DL.

You did catch the part about how I was the only person there who didn’t work there, right? It’s important.

So I walk up to the counter, and there are two people there, having a pleasant conversation. They ignored me for a few minutes, and again, this is important: I was the only person there. The guy then looks up at me and says, “Take a number.”

Uhm, okay. I took a number and sat down. They continued their conversation for a few minutes — during which time nobody else came in (that’s important) — and then the guy gets up, looks out over the empty chairs (empty with the sole exception of the one in which I sat) and said in a loud voice:

“Seventy-one! Seventy-one!”

I looked around, wondering if there were a back door other people had entered, then sat down behind me. Nope. I was still the only person there. I stood up, walked to the counter, and gave him my number.

He took my card and asked me if I wanted to register to vote. I said sure. That was when I found out Pennsylvania was a party registration state (Indiana is not) — when I had to look into some little viewscreen and answer questions. When that was over, he told me to take a seat and my DL would be ready in a few minutes.

I sat. They talked. I sat. They talked. I watched my DL come out of the printer. They talked. Eventually, he stood up, got my DL, and called my name, again looking out over the seats and in a loud voice meant to carry in an amphitheater.

Again, I looked for that back door. Nope. Nobody else in there.

I guess they’re bored.

Misha has a good article up about voting strategy, which unlike many I have read, actually makes sense:

If you’re lucky enough to live in a State or a District whose representative is a true conservative, and that goes for all of us who might be that lucky, vote for him or her. DO get out the vote and make your voices heard. This is NOT about stomping our feet and being silly, we leave that to the other side.

If not, however, if you happen to have an incumbent who is about as “conservative” as Harry Reid, let’s find a conservative counter-candidate for the primaries that we can back up and stump for until our fingers bleed. I volunteer whatever clout I may have for the cause and I will do anything (short of breaking the law, and the CFR doesn’t count since it’s un-Constitutional and thus I am not bound by my oath to uphold it, as a matter of fact I’m bound by it to do the exact oppposite) to boost their campaign.

Let’s get some true conservatives on the ballot, and let’s use our strength to work together, not against each other.

We have an advantage here in Pennsylvania. There’s a strong movement to oust incumbents from the state legislature for voting themselves a pay raise and taking it in the same year — which is prohibited by the state constitution. Folks are still pissed, and thirty legislators announced they weren’t running for re-election.

That means there are lots of people running, and we’ll find out who wins the primary tomorrow night (given that the primary is tomorrow).

There are two GOPs here: the boys in power, and the Club for Growth GOP. This is Toomey’s state, after all. But it makes for interesting politics, and interesting races.

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