中期选举

刚到附近的投票站early voting把票投了。没想到early voting队伍也挺长的，排了大概10多分钟才拿到选票，看来这次民众的投票热情还挺高的。

想起上周末在马里兰的朋友家里Halloween Party, 被问及这次是否打算投票。我回答：当然。

朋友：你打算投哪个?

我： To be honest I haven't paid much attention to who the candidates are. I only need to know their party affiliation, and that's enough information for me to vote.

朋友 （叹气）：It's really a pitty that people nowadays are not voting for specific candidates or their policies. We are simply voting for the party. I am on the same boat, and I have to vote for whoever comes out of the primary.

说实在的马里兰的Republican governor是个典型的温和派，而且一直对川普君没啥好感的。但如今即使apolitical and moderate如我，也只能被polarized political spectrum/candidates裹挟着做出vote for the party的选择，真的也挺无奈的。

想起10年前刚来这边读书的时候选了一门American politics相关的课程，记得读过一本"Red and Blue States",里头作者做的survey显示polarization主要发生在legislators的候选人层面，而选民本身的viewpoint并没有这么两级化（当然这本书成书是在10多年前，现在情况可能有所不同）。究竟为啥这种“选民被候选人往光谱线两边拖”的情况出现了这么久没有得到缓解，反而越演越烈，可能有多种解释。对如同偶这样的voter来说，大概people's fear is real这句话，两边都适用的。