Now I was raised to believe that voting is not just a right I possess as a citizen of the USA (and a right, I may add, that many men and women far braver than I gave their lives defending in years past), but also a responsibility. Which is to say, a right only matters if you exercise it every now and again. It's important that you get out there and vote.
Normally, I stop there. I just encourage people to engage in the electoral process and let them vote their conscience. And if you don't want to read anything political, stop here, and just make sure you vote on Tuesday.
 | This year, however, I feel it's a little too important not to at least mention my thoughts on the subject. The bottom line is many of us (and by us I mean nearly all of my family and friends) feel that we've been in an increasing bad situation vis-a-vis our government and its decisions and its decision-makers ("deciders," if you will). And the beauty of it is, in this country, we get a chance to tell people, "Yeah, this just isn't working for me, so we're going to try something else." |
Ultimately, this year voter turnout (and, in particular, Democratic voter turnout) matters big-time. Many races will be decided by just hundreds of votes—and those races will determine the future of Congress.
MoveOn's Call for Change program allows people with busy lives to spend as little as 15 minutes mobilizing voters in key races from their home computer and phone.
There's been lots of attempts (and likely they'll continue) to energize the conservative "base" -- that's one thing the right is very good at. Let's not sit idly by and let another election go to the dogs (and by that I mean no disrespect to our canine friends out there....)
Thank you for reading, and I think I'll leave you with a quote from Teddy "Carry a Big Stick" Roosevelt that I came across recently at an island we have down here named for the former President:
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy." — Theodore Roosevelt
1 comment:
I have found that I am voting out the majority of the incumbents. Admittedly, most incumbents are GOP, but I find it really doesn't matter which party the person is with - after a while, the position gets to them, they slide into the muck, and then they are useless (or worse, malevolent).
There are exceptions - my US congressman has never done anything I have found objectionable, and is for the most part a good leader, even though he has been an incumbent for a long time. He gets my vote. He is a Democrat (NJ-1st Dinstrict).
You could not get me to vote for the Democrat incumbent US Senator with a gun to my head. He is the worst kind of scum, dealing in pay-to-play and campaign finance corruption. Of course, it doesn't hurt that his opponent is the son of a well-regarded ex-governor of NJ/ex-president of a certain college.
Call it prestige by association, but really, the GOP could have trotted out Elmer Fudd and I would vote for him rather than the incumbent sleezeocrat.
So vote out the useless incumbents - maybe a drastic shift will scare the scum and embolden the timid, and we can get a representative government that actually cares about it's country.
Of course, I might still grow wings and fly to the moon, but I can dream...
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