SavageDem

"I don't belong to an organized political party – I'm a Democrat." – Will Rogers

Tag: election

  • Be Scared. And Then Do Something.

    You should be very concerned. Scared, even. There are people trying to take away everything you have. Your freedom. Your rights. Your family.

    It’s a tipping point in America: we are on the verge of losing our democracy and everything we believe sets our country apart. This is not hyperbole. We have one major governmental party that has given up all pretense of advocating for the populace, and instead is laser-focused on burning everything to the ground to achieve power for a small number of individuals. The Republican Party no longer exists as an entity that stands for the so-called “conservative” values of smaller government, fiscal restraint, and constitutionalism; it has become a sham party that installs racists, neo-Nazis, and zealots, people with no discernable qualifications to be in government barring their slavish devotion to the cult of Trump.

    There is no “both sides do it” argument here. We came within a whisker of a coup – having our government stolen from under us! – in the last election. Trump tried to use the Russian government to get elected! Republicans continue to try to make it impossible to vote unless you are white. These are not debatable statements: unless you go “la-la-la-la!” and put your hands over your ears and eyes and only watch Faux News, you have watched every day for the past 6+ years as these events happen.

    Now maybe you’re one of those people who says, “I don’t really get into politics”. You’re fine.

    You sit at your desk.
    You have Chick-fil-A for lunch on Thursday.
    You watch Yellowstone.
    You have a couple of beers.

    Most likely you don’t care too much because you’re white. You’re at least middle-class. These things don’t affect you…or so you believe. I’d start paying attention. You may think it’s only the black guy, the poor guy, the “other” guy that’s going to be affected. Heck, maybe you even think, “Gosh-darn it, that’s really quite unfortunate”, even as you pop open your third Busch Light. But these things WILL affect you. You know how 90% of Americans only have 23% of the wealth of this country, while the top 10% has 77% (including the top 1% that has 38%!)? Guess what: YOU are not in the top 10%. And it’s going to get worse if you don’t do something. Maybe you think racism doesn’t affect you. Or religious extremism. A bunch of people in Germany thought the same 85 years ago. Remember the poem by Martin Niemöller, which ends: “Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me”.

    The whole promise of America is that we are a free and equal country. No matter the color of our skin. No matter what gender we are. No matter how we identify our gender – or lack thereof. No matter who we love. No matter to what god we pray – or do not pray. There are people right now actively trying to take that away from you. They are not “freedom lovers”. They are not “patriots”. They want to make you conform to their idea of how you should be: that is not freedom.

    There is one good way to combat this: vote. And yes, I will say it: vote Democratic. The Democratic party is the only party that is doing anything to help 99% of Americans. That is not to say they are perfect – far from it. But when you are facing the evil we are right now – and it *is* evil – then you must choose the better path, even if imperfect.

  • Ode to a Loser. HUGE loser.

    The Orange Idiot
    His imbecilic untruths
    They vex me bigly.

  • There’s No “There” There

    If you really consider yourself someone who examines the facts – and not just an ideologue – you need to read this from Paul Krugman. The Romney/Ryan plan makes no sense. There’s no “there” there. Their numbers come from thin air. And this is not up for debate: the Congressional Budget Office says so.

  • Hope this holds…

    I like the look of Nate Silver’s final projection for MN Governor.

    Projected results for Minnesota governor race in 2010

  • Would we miss Nevada?

    Being a happy-clappy, tree-hugging liberal, I’m not usually in favor of mass extinction events. But if Sharron Angle becomes a U.S. Senator from NV, I might not be opposed to resuming nuclear warhead testing. In Las Vegas.

    I’m just sayin’.

  • The Things You Learn as an Election Judge

    I took the oath and put on my “Election Judge” sticker for the third time last week. ‘Twas quite a departure from a year ago: as opposed to the nearly 2,100 voters passing through my precinct then, we had merely 85 (including five absentee ballots!) yesterday. The only offices on the ballot were city council and school board, but still…a disappointing turn-out.

    Sitting at the polling place for 141/2 hours did, however, give me an opportunity to converse quite a bit with my fellow election judges. What an eye-opener! I found out many things:

    • Health care is just fine in the U.S. – if you can afford it – so we should stop trying to make it so “socialist.” Especially because there was this one person from Poland who said that their universal health care was OK most of the time, but he knew a woman who died from breast cancer because she had to wait a month for a mammogram.
    • ACORN has been changing elections with their wicked ways.
    • The “Big Bang” theory is ridiculous. God created the Universe.
    • If you fill a write-in vote with a nonexistent candidate then your entire ballot should be discarded.
    • The Internet is funded entirely by pornography.
    • The United States is a Christian nation, blessed specifically by God in the Bible.
    • People in the U.S. don’t care about life any more because of the millions and millions of babies we kill every year with abortions.

    Needless to say, I live in a very Conservative, Catholic, mostly-Right RepublicanT city. Savage, MN, if you must know. Not many Democratic candidates get votes here; even Barack only got 41% vs. McCain’s 57% last year. I should be inured to it. But the hopeless romantic in me keeps expecting people to wise up.

    Now granted, I was by far the youngest election judge; let’s just say that MTV started the year I graduated high school. We had one judge who was perhaps in her mid-50s – and was the only other Democrat in the room – one who just retired, and the other three were age 79 or older. But the old adage about age bringing wisdom certainly didn’t seem to apply.

    Although we also found several pleasant, non-political things to talk about throughout the day, it seemed – to this Progressive – that often their goal was to affirm the wackiest of the wacky right-wing memes in order to cause me maximum irritation. If so, they succeeded, but I kept my turmoil internal. For the most part.

    Recognizing the futility of trying to combat a (long) lifetime of religious and closet-racist dogma, I silently gritted my teeth and went to my happy place whilst the senior simpletons spluttered senselessly. Only once did I emerge from my self-imposed conversational exile, and that was when the rabble started bemoaning how the minions of ACORN had destroyed the validity of our elections. After I had set the record straight – no conspiracy, a few bad eggs, ACORN itself reported the wrongdoing, evildoers apprehended, no fraudulent votes ever cast, procedures changed, etc., etc. – there was a quiet response of, “Oh, really?” and the subject was dropped. One tiny bit of recompense for my suffering.

    It still stuns me when I come face to face with this, this…willful ignorance. I don’t know everything, nor do I play an actor who does on TV. But I do endeavor to read a bit, listen a bit, stay open-minded, explore the issues, and – call it naive – expect that people act in the best interests of others. Crazy, right?

  • A day we’ll remember our entire lives: The dawn of a new age.

    I’ve just come back – OK, two hours or so ago – from volunteering as an Election Judge in perhaps the most important election in the history of the United States. And Barack’s our President! I’m so ecstatic I just want to – as a friend of mine voiced – run out into the neighborhood and shout it out to everyone. President Barack Obama! President Barack Obama!

    No, you haters out there, I don’t think he’s the Messiah. Or the Saviour. I do, however, think that his election is important on many fronts: the end of – hopefully forever – selfish, me-based, f*ck the poor, fear-based, decidedly and diametrically opposed to Christian tenets, neocon politics; the beginning of a positive, we-based, empowering, forward-thinking culture; and a final don’t-let-the-door-hitcha-on-the-way-out kick-in-the-pants end to racism, discrimination, bigotry, and small-mindedness.

    No, of course that won’t happen at once; but it’s a powerful start! Just by being there Barack will force the morons still rampant in our society to face up to what most of us have known for a l-o-o-o-o-o-ng time: skin color is no determinant of intelligence, ability, or performance. Like it or not, these intellectually-challenged members of our society must recognize that their President has a greater concentration of melanin in his skin than they might, but that this has no bearing on his ability to whip their collective intellectual asses. And if they don’t own up to this, than we’ll label them what they are: traitors. Isn’t that the standard neocon label that they put on anyone who disagrees with or dislikes a Republican President? Not patriotic. Not ‘merican.

    So back atcha. Support President Obama, or you’re not a patriotic American. And Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-bama!

    Now, if only Al Franken pulls through in MN in the wee hours, my joy will be unbounded…