Read My Lips: Voting Counts
Some guy called a radio talk show this morning to say he only voted once and never will again because George Bush won even though a majority voted for Al Gore. He said, “My vote doesn’t count.”
To which I wish I could have said, “You blithering idiot. You sound like a teenager who thinks life has no meaning because you didn’t get picked for the prom court. You’ve written off democracy because your guy didn’t win? Because the other side is stacking the deck? Because ‘the system’ doesn’t work exactly the way you think it should? Wah wah.”
The worst part is I know how many people agree with him. To those, I say:
Snap out of it. Even if your guy wins, nobody promised an election will magically fix everything you don’t like. “I give up” is the cynic’s way out. Cynicism is lazy and cowardly and this is no time for lazy cowards. We are in serious, serious danger.
You don’t think the threat of authoritarian government is upon us? Look around.
The Republican party has turned all its resources to making the US an autocrat’s delight. They gerrymander, strip voting rights, suppress challenges. Right now, they are already working on ways to give themselves the power to erase election results they don’t like, with the help of anti-democracy puppets overseeing local elections.
Meanwhile, they keep sowing chaos as cover. You’ve noticed how much energy they spend on whipping up sexual and racial hysterics? They want people to feel afraid and threatened and confused all the time. Because they have no actual philosophy or platform any more.
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This has been going on for a long time. They’ve killed spending limits, legalized dark money, unleashed mountains of corporate cash. This year, they’re sending shock troops to attack librarians, teachers and election officials. The goal: Get ’em to quit, and run true believers to take over.
(This, by the way, is Vladimir Putin’s model of deception and deflection. The Republicans won’t say so, but they love Vlad. If they take over Congress, Ukraine will be screwed.)
The point of all this: They want people to believe their votes mean nothing.
They are wrong. Votes count. They counted in Georgia when Rafael Warnock got to the Sentate. They counted in Kansas whenvoters swarmed the polls to tell the Supreme Court that no, the government does not own our bodies. Every election, real people refuse to be manipulated.
If you don’t vote, you are approving every noxious thing the Republicans want to do.
Democracy works only if you vote. Over and over and over and over, every time, in every single election. If you stay home and lick your wounds, they win.
Stop whining. Put on your grownup hat and go to the polls.
