Crossposted at News From the Front.
(I know, I’m days late to op-ed on this topic but bear with me, I’ve had other things to deal with.)
I guess the first thing to say is that maybe in the future, a sex scandal isn’t a sex scandal unless a penis actually enters an orifice it’s not supposed to. Yes, Mr. rhymes with lemur shouldn’t have been showing his junk to ladies on the internet. But in the grand pageant of Awful Shit That Politicians Have Done While In Office, it barely rates mention in the same breath as David Vitter’s thing about diapers. (Which if prostitution were legal and properly unionized, would probably count as an OSHA violation.)
It should also be noted that given the vagaries of redistricting, it might not make that much difference to us anyway.
However, something caught my eye during the coverage of this and it needs to be addressed.
In the New York Times article about this, paragraphs ten and eleven are the ones that make me realize just how long the road ahead really is. Bold Face is mine.
Mr. Turner’s victory stirred anxiety among Democrats already worried about elections next year for president, the House and the Senate. The Turner campaign had eagerly courted disenchanted Democrats, and outside polling places around the district on Tuesday, multiple longtime Democrats confessed that despite concern about Mr. Turner’s eagerness to slash federal spending, they chose him hoping that his election would get lawmakers’ attention.
“I am a registered Democrat, I have always been a registered Democrat, I come from a family of Democrats — and I hate to say this, I voted Republican,” said Linda Goldberg, 61, after casting her ballot in Queens. “I need to send a message to the president that he’s not doing a very good job. Our economy is horrible. People are scared.”
Yes, Ms. Goldberg. I understand. The economy is horrible. People are scared. But here’s the thing. The Republicans have spent the last year since they’ve taken over the House either coming up with bad bills or blocking good ones. And one of the reasons things have slowed down was the recent fight picked by the GOP over raising the debt limit that threatened to send the world careening into a financial black hole.
And Ms. Goldberg, who is so concerned about the economy, just enabled the party that’s determined to do jack shit about it!!!
I don’t want to be rude about this so I will not openly speculate about Ms. Goldberg’s intelligence or mental state. (Although I will say that she seems angry and frightened and neither emotional state lends itself to good decision making.) However, I do feel the need to remind people of an important fact.
When you cast a vote for a person or a proposition, it is counted to mean that you support that person or proposition and wish to see the person elected or that proposition implemented.
That’s it.
Nothing else.
There is no such thing as a “sarcasm font” on a ballot.
I can understand not voting for a particular candidate if you think they’re incapable of doing the job. I can understand voting for a third party candidate. I even get opting out of voting at all. (Even though that’s a terrible thing to do because you’re taking yourself out of the conversation.) But to vote for someone who’s policies you disagree with just because the people you do agree with aren’t working fast enough? That’s like trying to win a bar brawl by punching yourself in the balls.
We need to take ownership with this problem and try to fix it. Not by voting for the other guy because we want to send a message. You want to send a message? Call your Congress Critter and say, “Hey asshole, do your job better!” or words to that affect.
We need to vote for the people that stand for what we stand for. Not for the ones who don’t.