There is money flowing and flowing and flowing into our national dialogue. Our airwaves are crammed with negative ads financed by the big guys. Wealthy corporations and fat cats are swelling the coffers of the Rovian right. So it's all over for democracy right? The Democrats don't stand a chance against this outpouring of treasure. The midterms are going to be a smackdown of the people's party... those poor, dear Democrats silly enough to believe in governance. It's curtains for the environmentalists and woe unto the education reformers. A woman's right to choose? Sorry, yanked. Green jobs? Um no, not this year. The separation of church and state -- merely a quaint historical notion.
No, say the pundits, this one is for the grand old parties, tea and otherwise, that would-be plutocrats are feting.
Or maybe not. A funny thing is happening at early polling sites all over the country -- folks are voting. America has apparently not gotten the memo that our democracy is for sale. The saps are just proceeding right on with it as though the millions spent to dismay them have somehow failed to do so. It seems they plan to have their vote counted, and last I looked it is votes that we count here... not coins.
I hope at least for Meg Whitman's sake that money can buy you love, because an election? Turns out, not so much. Bless her heart, she spent $120 million of her personal fortune on her race for governor of California and could not even win the endorsement of her hometown paper.
This is very good news for our country as a whole. We are exercising our right to self-determination. Bully for us. I voted today at 1:30 p.m., Central Standard Time, so there, Koch brothers -- you can take your gold and shove it, or what the hell, give some more to Christine O'Donnell... the girl's got rent to pay.
If you have time to read this, you have time to vote. If you are angry about all the anger out there, good, go ahead and be angry -- there is a lot of anger to be angry about. But you must vote. If you need a ride, ask for one, but get to the polls. If you lost your cat, put up posters of her on your way to the booth and vote. If your cause has not yet been taken up by the country, remember that it never will be if you do not vote. If you think that the outcome of this election is a foregone conclusion, then you need to think again, because every election is ours to win or lose, which is why we vote.
They have endless streams of cash, but they do not have you. You are a resource that cannot be monopolized. If they win you lose. It is that simple. You are all you've got, and that is all you need.
Vote.
So get the hell out their and VOTE! Then lets all watch the news on Election Day. Hopefully we will be laughing at Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina.
Two wings of the same corrupt corporate party.
End Duverger's Law's stranglehold!
"Game, set and match to the Plutocracy".
OK. What do you plan to do about it?
Quit?
Move?
Whine?
Or try to do something constructive?
The only way for our democracy to climb out of the mess it is in is for people to take charge of their political beliefs and express them in a voting booth. Both right and left.
The results will drive those elected in some direction. Then, if enough of us like that general direction we will express that in follow-on elections and move the government farther along that path.
The process is messy and slow. Currently, it is woefully stacked against anyone left of Attila the Hun, and I don't know if his Christian fundamentalist beliefs are adequate!
It may take decades. But if you just give up, there will be an authoritarian state. Count on it.
On the other hand, I wonder how many people standing on the Washington Mall in 1963 believed they would see a black President in their lifetime?
If you work hard to persuade people and go vote, we may still go down the drain, but that, my friend, is just life. Get over it.
also, regarding 1963-- there is a black man on the supreme court. obama's symbolism is just that. his tepid measures thusfar against a corrupt system amount to little.
Both parties would sell their grandmothers for power.
But whom to vote for is very simple:
1. If you don't mind losing your freedom (lost to 'Unitary Executive' ability to detain you), vote Repulican.
2. If you think hate radio is wonderful, vote Republican.
3. If you think our concentration camp in Cuba was a good idea, vote Republican
4. If you don't mind our leaders lying our way to war(!), vote Republican.
5. If you agree that Social Darwinism (piss on you economics, etc.) is a great thing, vote Republican.
6. If you want big corporate banking interests to have more and more influence until it is too late EVER to win an election again for anyone but their toadies, then vote Republican.
7. If you don't care about education, vote Republican.
8. If you think it's OK that our manufacturing base is dying, because you own a bunch of stock in multinationals that chase the cheapest labor, damn the consequences, vote Republican.
9. If you don't believe in the scientific method, vote Republican.
10. If you think 'greed is good', but claim to be Christian, vote Republican.
11. If you think torture is a great way to get information out of people you don't like, vote Republican.
I could go on, but...I won't even bring up the crap about healthcare, social security, etc...
Otherwise, vote Democratic. Please. But vote...
Our votes aren't the problem, so you're preaching to the choir here. You need to get their votes, ours will already be going to right place.
Else, we slip into authoritarianism, and our little democratic experiment will have failed.
It's up to us.
Just received a kit for building a practice solar panel that I bought off ebay. Looking forward to moving to my 3 acres in rural Hawaii early next year. Bought and paid for. No electric bill, no sewer bill, no water bill, agriculture tax rates (LOW), have a big garden.
Will I complain when the election results go WAY SOUTH. Nope, just don't care any more. I plan on being extremely happy on my little rural piece of paradise. This country is going DOWN!
That being said, the Republican party that is noted more then but not the only one to use this negative add will flood the airways with negative adds to turn a close election. But with the mail in vote, that can be done up wards of a month or more before the election date, it defeats the whole process of money and spending on negative adds.
I suggest in the primary election no party ballots. No party representation on the ballots just a list of names and the office they are running for. This would force the people to know the candidates, maybe, but would allow open opinion and parties to run for office. In November, mail in, stand in line but no advertisements the last add three days before the election!
I don't know how Americans have been convinced to shy away from this mechanism. When was the last time we had any amendment?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Amendment to the Constitution
Change the makeup of the court
The first is likely to be very difficult, and would get fought tooth and nail by all those who stand to benefit from preventing it.
The second will take decades, because of the slow turnover of the court. [ I just wonder how John Roberts could keep a straight face when he gave his responses concerning 'activist judges'! What a sick joke!]
But either or both are something to shoot for. You gotta try...
I consider voting the highest civic duty of an American citizen, and my two young daughters went with me so that I could drive this fact into their heads early. Never think that your vote won't count. It will, if but for the idea that you can always say, "Well, I didn't vote for him/her."
Some may disagree with me, but I believe if you don't vote and are able to, you have no right to complain.