Your vote and your valuable time
Go ahead and vote if you must. See how that works out for you, supporting the lesser of two evils for the umpteenth time as the center moves further and further away from you. Maybe you've heard the expression: When you find that you're in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging. By voting, you're actually betraying what I'm certain is the most powerfully-honest political feeling you own right now-- dissatisfaction.
The Democratic Party, the graveyard of progressive ideals, is so lacking this time around of both a resonant message or any successful record of governance or advocacy that they've resorted to posting unrelated celebrity GIFs online to try to shame young people into voting. What an insult to our intelligence. The Democrats destroyed the anti-war coalition, then the anti-Wall Street coalition. They gave bipartisan cover instead to unceasing war and an Orwellian police and prison state. They've demonstrated that they can't be trusted with the leadership of any individual progressive cause, and so certainly they shouldn't be trusted with your vote.
Young people are much-maligned as a voting bloc, but they're actually the most savvy voting demographic in the country. You can't lie to them as easily. It's clear that a majority of them plan to stay home tomorrow, and that makes perfect sense if we pause for a moment to stop being frustrated with their "inaction." If it mattered to their self-interest, they would vote. Why wouldn't they? You can persuade the old folks to surrender their most deeply-held beliefs armed with only a naked and geriatric appeal to party loyalty, but that line don't work so much on the sprouts. Individual thought is still novel. They're still part of, or fresh out of, an educational system that harps on achievement, equality, and fair evaluation so they're highly attuned to these concepts. It's harder to convince them to vacantly offer up support for a corrupt and indefensible system.
I'll fight anybody that says different. Democracy arguably made a nice go of it for awhile, but it only led to a more responsive government. The plutocracy was forced to take back its toy. Only a mirage of it remains. Activism and agitation have become more essential, as a result. Those have always been the true building-- and re-building-- blocks of democracy. Voting for the plutocracy's vetted candidates, on the other hand, is something else entirely. It's a waste of one's time. As the saying goes, it only encourages them.
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Accused cop killer Eric Frein was apprehended in Pennsylvania last week after a 48-day search. The whereabouts of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson are still unknown.
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This is a yard display depicting the lynching of a black family. It was on federal property at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Shades of the Ferguson, Missouri police department, it appears that it's going to take protest pressure to get the name of the offending, active-duty soldier released.
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"If voting made a difference, it would be illegal." - Daniel J. Berrigan S.J.
posted by CM @ 5:22 PM
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