I've read a half dozen diaries on why we lost big in the 2014 elections. They focus on two things: message and the quality of the candidates. Both of these are very important. But there is a bigger reason maybe the real reason we lost this election and have lost other elections in the recent past. When I started to dwell on it a couple of days ago I just got more and more angry. Angry at us. Angry at democrats. Angry at the progressives on this site. Pissed at all the comments about motivating our voters to go to the polls. I was so mad that I had to take a couple of days before I could sit down and calmly write this diary.
Voting is not a right or a privilege. It is your DUTY as a citizen. Most of you will never be called to go to war. One of the few duties that your country will ask of you is to vote: just go to the nearest polling place or get an absentee ballad and vote. Most of the other civic duties like paying taxes and serving on a jury are enforced by threat of fines or jail time. Voting is a duty where you are give a free choice. We must make every democrat understand that to vote is pay your respects to the ideals that our country was founded on. The reality of the United States has often fallen short of our ideals, but one way to more us forward, closer to those beliefs of unalienable rights, is to vote.
One of the themes in comments and diaries has been; "if we don't give our voters the option of an exciting candidate they won't vote." What bull crap! You vote because it is your duty. How often everyday do we have to make decisions between two or more unappealing options. Such is life. Even if we had an Elizabeth Warren running in every district most of the voters would only hear the negative commercials on TV. Most voters, ours and theirs, only get a tiny fraction of information on any candidate. Every single republican I talked to, and I live in a area that has a lot of vocal republicans, were dissatisfied with their candidates. Every republican complained about the negative ads and said that all they wanted was for this election to be over. Many republicans have been turned off by all the negative ads and dislike all politicians. But they vote. Why do they vote? Because they believe and have been taught that voting is a duty, an obligation of citizenship. Our voters, democrats, have to feel the same way. We should shame any democrat who doesn't cast a vote during an election. I have more respect for a republican who votes than for a democrat who doesn't. Many people hate politics the same way others hate math, but republicans vote because they know that it is their civic responsibility to do so. It sickens me that we have democrats who don't understand this and feel like they have to be enticed into the voting booth. That is bullshit. If you are a citizen of the United States you owe it to your country to vote. Other countries require their citizens to vote. Why? Because voting is important to the health of a democracy.
To claim that you are abstaining is the cowards way. There are going to be some of our people who will say: "I don't think Hillary Clinton will make a good president so I'm not voting." You don't know what kind of president Hillary Clinton will be. She could turnout to be the greatest president of our age. If Elizabeth Warren gets elected president she could turnout to be the worst president we've ever had. You don't know. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't work to get the candidate that you think will be the best choice for the office. But if your choice isn't on the ballot that doesn't give you an out not to vote. Part of life is making tough choices. Most of the time we are choosing between options where none of them are the options we would have wished for. "I know that so-and-so will be the best congressperson, senator, president etc." Right, most of us can't even pick out the best mate for ourselves. What we do know is that almost any democrat is going to be better for the country than almost any republican. Our people have to see that it is there solemn duty to vote.
Some others will say: "It is too hard to vote. The republicans have put up too many road blocks for our people to get to the polls." Yes, we need to do everything we can to stop voter suppression. But is it that much harder than cashing a check? Most of us have had to jump through ridiculous hurdles at one point or another in our lives to cash a check, but we did it. Why did we persist? Because we needed the money. But we don't expect our voters to love their country enough to do their duty and vote? The best way to stop voters suppression is to vote in democrats who will clear the way for all voters. Charlie Crist was a clear choice when it came to going from a state where voters had to fight for the right to vote and one where the state helped its' citizens to fulfill their civic obligations. Why can republicans put up road blocks to vote without fear of stopping their older voters from casting their ballots? Because they know that their voters will jump through any hoops to do their duty at the ballot box. Our people have to feel that no obstacle is too wide or too high to keep them from serving their country by voting.
From now on the answer to "why should I vote?" must always be "because it is your duty. " Remember when Elizabeth Warren or some other candidate you consider perfect is running, the opposition will run thousands of ads to convince democrats and independents that she is a poor choice. Most of the electorate will only know what the T.V. tells them about the candidates. It will be easy for them to convince themselves that there is no point in voting. The meme of "they are all crooks" will almost always rein supreme. The republicans believe that - but they go vote because they have been taught that it is their sacred duty to do so. We have to teach our people the same thing.