***steps up on soap box***
I vote.
I vote when I’m uninspired by the candidates and I vote when I’m fired up.
Election Day isn’t the same as a movie opening…and it sure as shit isn’t like having a set of free tickets to a play you may skip because you didn’t pay anything.
I vote...because of the sacrifices made to gain that right for me, because of the lives lost to protect that right for me and because of what my vote…my very presence at the polls on Election Day…means.
Lots of people are talking about turn out and who will show up and why…lots of folks are spinning the current state of everything to either inspire or depress the electorate.
And the fact that they can…that that shit works…pisses me the hell off.
I’m going to keep this shit real as hell – there isn’t a ballot out there that doesn’t contain at least one fucking race and/or issue you care about.
Not one…and anyone who tells you otherwise is a Demon Sheep you shouldn't turn your back on.
Do the political parties make a body want to hurl on their best day?
Yes.
Do the big races often overshadow the state races and ballot initiatives that tend to come back and bite the masses in the ass?
Yes.
Does any of that really matter to a consistent voter?
Fuck it all if it does.
The only people getting screwed over by low turn out are the people who don’t turn the fuck out.
I vote and I’ve never walked away from the polls thinking that I just wasted my damn time.
Hell, more often than not I spend the weekend before Election Day studying all the shit on the ballot that no one has talked about so I can make and educated decision...and walk into the polls amazed at all the important as hell shit I'm responsible for voting on.
Sigh.
This is my tragically annual call to the masses – don’t believe the hype.
Don’t fall for the bullshit that it doesn’t matter…that there isn’t anything important on the ballot or that it’s all pre-determined blah blah and another blah.
This past August a primary race in Missouri was decided by one vote.
One.
Vote.
If we snooze on Election Day...we lose.
***steps off soap box***
12 comments:
And can I just add that I don't care if someone thinks Obama is being condescending about it. I don't care if liberals and progressives are dissappointed thinking that not every policy we want has been dealt with to our satisfaction (it hasn't, but dang the balance of satisfaction with this administration is miiiiiiles better than the previous. C'mon people.) I've still got a choice between Jerry Brown and *Carly Fiorino* or maybe even *Meg Whitman* in CA. I don't care what anyone else says. I will vote just to vote against the Republicans. (I voted Republican in the primary just to vote against Orly Taint.) Yeah, I would much prefer voting for, but for now I can settle on getting to do that whenever Barbara Lee is up for re-election. (The *one* vote against extending Bush's power after 9/11 - yes, she knew her constituency!) I will vote against if I don't have anyone to vote for. I have a *lot* of people to vote against.
*applauds*
I vote. I actually read ballot propositions.
If you voted for Obama two years ago, why are you sitting out now? Guess you voted cause it was the cool thing to do.
We creep ever closer to the fascist state.
Yvonne, I voted for Orly Taitz in the primaries because I wanted to hang an albatross on the Republican Party.
Thanks ABB
*applauds as well*
If people are too disgusted with the Democrats to vote for them, they should vote Green instead of staying home. At least that will give the Democrats some idea of what they have to do to win back that support.
MAF: Let's hope that's what people have been doing in all these other Tea Party upsets. Show the Republicans just what you get for pandering to hatred for political ends. But that albatross will hang on all of us if we don't get out the vote now!
Thank you Shark Fu!
I plan to send the same message to my family organization.
I would have cut and pasted your post, but some of our members would be bothered by the language.
Not the spirit though.
I hope you don't mind, but I'm about the share the shit out of this post.
Far more eloquent than my post of the 11th, but I'm right there with you.
Share, share and then share some more - thanks for asking!
Thank you for this post! I remember when I first went to the Secretary of States office to register to vote, and then voted six months later for a school board election, bond proposals, and a district election. I was excited as a kite to vote then, and I still am now! There's never an election of any nature that isn't worth taking the time out to vote for.
Do the political parties make a body want to hurl on their best day? Yes.
Except for the Green Party. If I knew Cynthia McKinney had a chance to win back in '08, I would have voted for her rather then Obama.
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