I haven't posted here in sometime and even longer since I posted about politics in general. My most recent posts have been related to marijuana reform. There's a reason for that. I had become discouraged because so many of the posts I was reading had definite libertarian leanings. Too many were about how corrupt they felt both political parties are. While this may be true one thing has remained the same. The two parties do have basic differences. Republicans support Big Business at the expense of all others. The Democrats support the expansion of individual rights. Forget where the parties get their money, look at their platforms.
I owe the Kos generation an apology for the behavior of my generation. The Boomers started out as Jackson Browne put it "So young & strong only to surrender." I'll explain below the fold.
When my generation was young & strong we shunned gas guzzling cars, we supported our parents fight for strong safety nets for the poor and elderly. Then a funny thing happened on their way to being the ruling generation, they got conned by Ronald Reagan.
How was that possible? I can answer that question with just one word. Greed. When we were going around starting Earth Day, fighting for the right to vote, and fighting to end America's conscription program which we euphemistically called the "draft," as if it was like the football draft or the baseball draft or the basketball draft like if it was a good thing we were okay with driving cheap VW's. Then our college degrees paid off and we didn't have to settle for an economy car we could afford a gas guzzler.
It was at that point in history that Ronald Reagan came along and told them the government is preventing you from being even richer. He told them the government is the problem not the solution. And 50.8% of the 52.6% of people that turned out to vote had bought it, hook, line and sinker. Well any fish in the ocean can tell you swallowing the hook, line and sinker is a sure way to die.
And so in the 1980's the social revolution that I still consider myself fighting for, died. It died of apathy and greed. The generation that protested in the streets to fight for the right to vote at age 18 stayed home or at least 47.4% of them did. We had forgotten that like blacks that fought for their civil rights we too had, had people die for the right to vote, we had forgotten Kent State. We had forgotten Jackson State.
Several years ago I was discussing this with another activist from my generation and she told me I was deluded to think that all young people back then were against the war. She explained that like today those who opposed the war were liberals on the coasts. People my age in the heartland and Deep South favored the war. They believed in the dominos that history eventually proved never fell. She said that if there was a map like the ones the networks use on election night that shows who voted red and who voted blue it would show the demographic breakdown of opposition to the Viet Nam War would look the same.
Now I still believe that if enough liberal minded people speak out we could change America. There is one big obstacle, voter turnout. While it has slowly come up from the 49% in 1996 that rivaled 1924's all-time low of 48.9 it is still far lower than our national high of 81.8% in 1876, which no doubt was partly due to the significance of 1876.
I will dance naked in Time Square if this year, an off year election, we have an 81.8% turnout. I am comfortable making that promise considering that in Baltimore City the primary election turnout was approximately 18% of eligible voters. The turnout nationally in 2012 was only 57.5% of eligible voters so I don't see a sudden 24.3% increase in voter turnout in November. And I'm sorry Kos generation this is mostly on you. As we have become senior citizens we have followed the pattern of older Americans voting in greater numbers than younger voters.
Bloggers of all stripes from the most active Daily Kos diarist to the dreaded Drudge himself for all our espousing of political beliefs we are still NOT inspiring voters to turnout. This has to change!
We have to push ourselves away from our desks, away from our laptops & tablets and join a campaign's GOTV efforts. I'm going to go out on a limb and say if there truly was only two choices Donkey or Elephant the people that blog here would Donkey kick that Elephant right in the balls. Sadly there will be other choices. For one we know that the Libertarian Party will in most states qualify to put up candidates for the major offices that are being voted on. This is all the more reason that we join a campaign now that primaries are winding down and gear up for a general election that is critical if you support progressive policies.
Yes, money is infecting every political party, even my Democrats, but if you’re asking me if I'm choosing between George Soros or the Koch Bros it's a no fucking brainer. I choose George in a heartbeat. But guess what if that 24.3% got off their ass and voted Dem two things would happen. First President Obama would have not just a filibuster proof Senate he'd have a Democratically controlled House to go along with it. The second thing would be I'd being boarding an Amtrak train for Penn Station to dance naked in Time Square.
P.S. As I am handicapped spinning around in my wheelchair in time to the music will have to pass for dancing.