Firstly, I have to admit that I'm not voting. I would vote, but I didn't apply my absentee ballot on time from Seatown. Fortunately, I'm not too concerned about it since in neither of the districts I could vote there is a republican I can sink my claws into. This isn't going to stop me from telling you to vote though, you might think I'm a hypocrite. If you are a regular reader you probably already do. I actually think fear of hypocrisy is one of the things that stops people from voting. That and extreme laziness. People might think, "I don't know what's going on, I haven't been following politics so I should stay out of it". Bullhonkey. Do a little research, if they have an "R" next to their name, vote against them. I think also that people who don't follow politics think there isn't much of a difference between the Rs and the Ds. Oh it's all the same. They're all the same. In some ways this is true, but in most ways it's not. For instance, the Republicans are actively trying to ruin your life. I say this assuming you are not a billionaire. Are you a minority of any sort? They hate you. Are you a woman? They hate you. Do you think a disparity between the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich is sickeningly massive? They hate you. Do you think a tiny portion of your tax money (pennies on the dollars you spend to support our military) should go to after-school programs that effectively lower crime in the inner-city? HATE YOU. I'm not kidding folks. If you are gay they are actively trying to TAKE AWAY YOUR RIGHTS. Not just denying you equal protections, they are trying to take away rights you already have. If you are poor they see you as a ineffective worker who deserves their lot in life. Never mind that half of them were born into wealth and the other half are WHITE AMERICAN MALES, the most privileged class in the entire history of the world*, and have 'pulled themselves up by their bootstraps' without anyone helping them with anything except for the fact that they are part of the most privileged class in the entire history of the world*. Someday, people might start getting it into their heads that if you are White, speak decent English, you basically can't not get a job. Double neagative: Can't not. If you are some other shade of melatonin, speak with anything less than perfect English, you must wait behind Whitey until he proves his incompetence (even then, he can't not get the job) and then maybe you will be next in line. Unless another Whitey comes along. Look at George Bush. The perfect Republican actually. White, barely competent, inarticulate, born into wealth and power, Step to the Front of the Line! 'Scuse me Mr. Obama, Bushy's comin' through. GW is so unextraordinary in every way that he actually had to change his accent. From Connecticut White to Southern White, on account of nobody would remember him if he didn't.
Once again I've completely lost my train of thought. Oh! Right, the Republicans are trying to kill you. No? They aren't? Well, yes they are. The other day I saw a team of military recruiters (all black men) scouring the subway station at Broadway Junction, deep in Brooklyn (I was the only white guy). There were five of them, dressed in fatigues, asking young black men what they might be doing for the rest of their lives. I wonder, why aren't they trolling Union Square, near NYU? Why didn't they stop me when I walked right by them? Is it because white middle class people in this country aren't good enough fighters? Or is because poor people are easier to convince to go fight our ill-concieved wars started by a rich White incompetent that was pushed to the front of the line? It turns out that is a lot easier to GET to the front of the line, when all the minorities in front you have been sent off as cannon fodder.
But I'm white and middle class, how are the republicans trying to kill me? Oh don't worry, they aren't leaving you out. Who do you think is driving up health care costs? Who is attacking Social Security and medicare every chance they get? Who's destroying the pensions that people have relied on for decades to support them in their old age? When you get cancer and can't afford to save your own life with drugs that are available for the very rich, you can thank the Republicans for killing you. When you are dying from a disease that might have been cured with government backed stem cell research, but won't be because the Republicans cut all funding, you can thank them for killing you.
But wait, isn't the Republican base lower and middle class white people? Yes. That doesn't make sense. No, it doesn't. I'm not even talking about the tax burdens shifted from the rich to those same middle class Republicans, I don't know enough about it. But make no mistake, the Republicans are acting against the interests of the majority of their own party. Unfortunately they have American Flag blindfolds on, pinned on with little crucifixes.
Of course it's worth mentioning that it was the Republicans, no one else, who took away YOUR Constitutional right of habeas corpus. I hope you haven't forgotten: you, YOU! Reading this, can be sent to prison on the President's discretion without a trial, without an attorney, and most importantly: without evidence.
Vote'm out.
*My assertion that White American Males are the most privileged class in the history of the world can be proved pretty easily using this formula: America is the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world. The people who run America are White American Males. Go to the front of the line.
i hear that. i, too, let my absentee-ness lapse. But mine is far worse than yours, in that I had voting power in a Red State. Arkansas. DOH!
Oh, well. Here's to hoping someone else votes.
Posted by: brandi at November 7, 2006 11:45 AM