“In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard’s vote.”
― Up, Simbal!: 7 Days on the Trail of an Anticandidate
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
― On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe
Attention: The Voting Has Begun
Hip-hip-hooray! My wife and I just voted via the Boulder County, Colorado e-portal/overseas voter process. It was reasonably easy and quick.
Before voting, we searched out several sources for suggestions, endorsements, and explanations of the various proposals–a good idea with such a long ticket festooned with myriad candidates and ballot measures.
A Favorite Quote From LBJ
Lyndon Baines Johnson was our 36th Prez–mostly known for the Vietnam War fiasco–but he did give us this gem o’ wisdom (read it with a deep and slow Texas drawl):
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket.”
That’s a nice description of our modern political discourse, perhaps going way back to Ronald “Ray-Gun” Reagan. Yes, both parties do the fear-mongering thing to a degree, but the colossal first prize, fake gold-gilded trophy, abso-fucking-lutely has to go to the far right conservatives in our US of A with their cynical (yet effective) use of culture war issues to divide us–whilst quietly making the rich riotously richer… the national debt even more massively massive… the rule of law oh-so-optional for the Epstein class and Jan 6 cop beaters… and needless (and even illegal) military actions/wars the lovely new standard.
So, I would highly recommend…
…that you go to USA.gov and follow the guidance to check your voter registration status.
If there is a problem, fix it if you can (hopefully, you have time).
If you are not registered, get registered (hopefully, you have time).
Then, VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! Dammit!
Online, by mail, early in-person, the day of/in-person, whatever option works best for you.
And make sure your ballot gets counted. (Colorado sends us an email when our overseas ballots are received, then again when they are counted.)
Finally, to follow up on the above LBJ quote, the Dems certainly aren’t perfect, but I would strongly suggest–regardless of how you have voted in the past–that this time around you not vote for a single Republican. You certainly know why I say this if you have been paying attention at all. (After that, we will need to hold the Dems’ tootsies to the flame.)
And… Thank you for your attention to this matter. Ha! ; )