Current location:	On my soapbox
Current mood:	motivated
Current music:	Keith Oberman on Lying & on Voting

Don't just sit there, VOTE!


I haven’t voted, except in presidential elections for years... and even those infrequently. I am no longer an O'babe, but I am still more comfortable with libertarianism (even though I don’t think most Libertarian candidates have a clue what that really is) and there is usually no hope of getting the people I really like elected.

However, this year, I have found a whole new reason to care... the nightmare depicted in a little graphic novel I read a few years ago is keeping me awake nights.

In Persepolis , a little girl from Iran tells the true story of her family watching their freedoms slowly erode away (starting with little things like religious freedoms, then women's rights, then segregation, till people are being taken away in the night to torture camps for speaking agaisnt the ruling party) all the while her parents say "it can't get any worse, no one will stand for it"... except everyone does... everyone thinking "someone else will fight, alone I can't make a difference." The parallels in this novel, between the Iran of the late 1970's and the America of the last few years are sufficiently compelling to get me off my butt, into a crowd of people I don't like (that being most people these days, I suppose), out in the freezing cold night, into a voting booth (in a church no less!).

This year I have only one voting rule, and it is extremely simple…
VOTE THE BASTARDS OUT!

Regardless of the ills of whatever opposing candidate, I just want the current ruling power out.
I want my vote to say, "ENOUGH ALREADY! Your smokescreen issues are not fooling us into complacence anymore!

No more overtly religious bigotry played to the lest common denominator!
No more exploiting people’s cultural traditionalism to take away their rights and opportunities (for instance: using religious fundamentalism to get the Latina/Latino vote then turning tail on all the issues important to that culture)!
No more appointing the wolfs to protect the flock (Seriously, replacing recognized scientific experts in the field with handpicked lead industry puppets on advisory committee of Center for Disease Control and Prevention on lead poisoning, appointing a physician who recommends prayer as a treatment for premenstrual pain to a committee advising the Food and Drug Administration on reproductive health issues, a key CDC advisory committee headed by an outspoken opponent of condom use for preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases?!.... If your wondering when the scientific method become a Democratic "spin", it was when it opposed the Bush Administration's political machine.)!
No more claiming to protect my freedom, while consistently taking freedoms away (we have lost gay marriage, stem cell research, are seriously close to losing the choice to have an abortion, and have just turned over our right to a fair trial and protection against search and seizure.. if the government for whatever reason thinks someone is a risk.)!
No more government sectioned torture!
And for GOD-Bless-America's sake, NO MORE bold faced lying and reinventing history, on the podium, online, mid-sentence!" At least when we’ve been lied to by past administrations, there was some attempt to cover the trail.. the assumption of our stupidity by this administration is just unprecedented.

It's not that I think that the Democratic party holds some utopia in store. Honestly, I think they are probably just about as corrupt as the Republicans, but I am certain that neither are as corrupt as the Bush Administraion... and I am not clear which Republicans are for or agaisnt, or even part of that! So I see the Democratic candidates as currently the only hope to end the sweeping and unprecedented erosion of our freedoms, a process that this administration seems to think we will quietly sit back and allow as long as they wave the flag and claim all who oppose them are traitors (which, let's be clear, they now actually have the power to prosecute in whatever way they see fit without justification).

My goal is not just to vote out the incumbents, but to vote them out with enough force to send a clear message.. We are not complacent. We are not scared of you. And we will act to protect our covenant with each other as a nation; to protect the civil rights of all members of this country regardless of religion, race, gender, or sexual orientation; and to act in the world in accordance with our shared values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness... We will act with our votes, with our voices, and if need be with acts of open defiance of this oppressive regime… And for that we are not ashamed, because we are NOT THE TERROISTS here.

But regardless of wether or not you agree with me on that point, VOTE.. vote your conscience whatever that is.
Just don't, whatever you do, sit back and hope that it can't possibly get any worse.

Hypatia

To Read: The Veil , a section of the novel Persepolis, or a message from the bipartisan Union of Concerned Scientists on the Bush administration.

To Hear: Keath Oberman’s reasons why you should VOTE