In college my friends often used to say that they had never met anyone as proud to be from somewhere as I was to be from Boston.  And why shouldn’t I?  We have every benefit of living in a world class city, plus such close proximity to beautiful beaches in the summer and mountains in the winter that you can easily take off for a day on nothing more than a whim.

I could fill an entire blog singing the praises of Boston, Massachusetts, or New England all by myself, but today’s post is instead about the quadrennial occurrence when I don’t like to live in the Bay State.  Like most of the nation, Massachusetts is not a swing state.  In fact, we are still so in love with the Kennedys that Bobby Kennedy’s grandson is coasting to a seat in Congress over a well-credentialed Republican opponent based on little more than the fact that he is Bobby Kennedy’s grandson.

Needless to say, unless they are here to raise money, we never see a presidential candidate.  They do not get to hear what concerns us, what excites us, or what issues are important to us.  Unfortunately, this is the case for all of us not lucky enough to live in one of the nine states getting any attention at all from Messrs Obama and Romney.  Then again, I suppose we are thus spared the endless barrage of negative television ads.

The fact that I am in a solidly blue (indicating Democratic, but not necessarily liberal) state means that my vote really doesn’t count.  Whether or not I show up at the polls next month, it will be the electors for Obama who win.  For some that is discouraging, but I find it liberating.  It means that I can, for the third time and without fear of being a spoiler, write in the name of “Average Joe” Schriner of Bluffton, Ohio, as my choice for president.  Every four years Joe gets my vote since each time he runs simply as “a concerned parent.”  He writes:

I don’t want to leave a world of climate change, war, abortion, rural and inner city poverty, violent streets, nuclear proliferation, astronomical national debt, little social security, dwindling access to healthcare to our children. What sane parent would?

Focusing on stewardship of creation, the sanctity of life, a preferential option for the poor, a safety net for the least among us and the rest, Joe’s platform is built on planks that are taken straight from Catholic Social Teaching.

If only that could be said of the other candidates in the race.  A lengthy list of Catholic theologians, academics, and ministers (including fellow Millennial writer Marcus Mescher) recently put out a statement critical of “the ‘Tea Party,’ libertarians, Ayn Rand followers and other proponents of small government,” and of Catholic Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan in particular:

Our concern is that Ryan and his Catholic supporters, must be informed—as prochoice candidates and Catholics who vote for them are perennially and appropriately reminded—that some of his positions are fundamentally at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

I hope it will soon be followed by a statement that points out where fellow Catholic Joe Biden’s political beliefs diverge from Church teaching, but I’m not holding my breath.  In the meantime, the bigger point is that “no party and too few candidates fully share the Church’s” vision of a good and just society.  With a platform like Joe’s, though, I think he comes pretty close.

I’m under no illusions that my vote will have any kind of influence on the election.  Joe Schriner is not going to win, few are going to even know who he is, and even fewer will take him seriously.  I, on the other hand, will be able to cast my ballot without holding my nose.  Now if I only lived in Joe Kennedy III’s district.