A PLEA FOR NON-VOTERS TO VOTE THIS TIME: USE IT OR LOSE IT
I dreamed of putting an exhortation to non-voters up on a billboard, but there were too many things to say. So it'll go out here & now:
Some say voting is just picking the lesser of two evils
Except that this election it's tweedledee vs tweedledumbest. This election is not about red/blue, elephant/donkey (though many elephants are acting like jackasses), but rather tea baggers vs democracy. Yes, tea baggers threaten democracy, but their masters are the real enemies of democracy. They think they are the patriots by virtue of their brand name, but the actions of their masters do not promote democratic values. I could pity the tea baggers if there weren't so many of them and so many who vote. I could pity that they don't know they are funded by the KKKochs and other robber barons, with propaganda supplied by the puppets of Faux News, with bad laws drafted by ALEC and promoted/passed by lapdogs like Walker. The tea baggers are a motley crew of single-button issue zealots. They're just "agin it." Using the idea of the enemy of my enemy is my friend, gun nuts, abortion foes, white supremacists, religious right wingers, and other reactionaries join together (I would love to see them try to agree on what they are FOR) to vote out the other side. But the tea baggers (maybe prompted by the notion that change is needed but focusing on outrage) have become the dupes of the nouveau Birchers, whose pimps like Ryan collect these single issue fanatics by pretending to care about the little guy and freedom, while really just moving them toward wage slavery or cannon fodder. The tea baggers are fools, fooled by the real enemies. And many are not beyond redemption. But they are dangerous as a mob.
Tweedledumbest
For a group of people who talk a lot about freedom, they sure want to prohibit:
a woman's right to choose what happens to her own body is a freedom they want to deny. No one is FOR abortion: it's called pro-choice, because it's about freedom. One could go on and on about how simplistic it is to be against abortion (just say "no"), while it is hard to be pro life about all humans, not just a fetus. There are more of these morons than you realize. Some think human life starts at ovulation. Others think masturbation should be illegal because it wastes sperm! VOTE to cancel out the vote of one of these narrow-minded people. Did you hear about the guy so narrow-minded, he fell on a pin & poked out both eyes?
any regulations on guns: Hey, the Bill of Rights numbers ten and clearly the first, as #1, is the most important. and 4 & 5 are great, too. #2 is not the most important and it's about militia, not shooting deer/dears with an AK-47.
drugs: The drug war is as foolish as Prohibition. Alcohol & Tobacco (first part of ATF) are regulated, but not prohibited (strong lobbies). But reactionaries don't want people to have fun, because they do not really value freedom. I'd argue that prostitution should also be legal but regulated. All the fake "libertarians" don't get this. LOTS OF CRYPTO-FASCISTS OUT THERE.
ETC.
What are they for? Greed, money and the removal of impediments to getting more. So less government regulation is seen as a good. Trickle down economics is yet another bad idea of these folks. It's really just the rich pissing on the poor. Remember, they are not bad people just because they hold many bad ideas; but implementing bad ideas that harm the world while benefiting the few is bad.
And they denigrate science and learning, deny or ignore facts; yet many believe nuclear power is safe, because they want to believe it. But then the validity of Carbon-14 dating means some posit that god went around putting out fake fossils 4000 years ago. As if it has a sense of humor. I fear that Mother Nature's humor we may not find funny.
Evil
That most of the tea baggers have bad ideas because they are ignorant or stupid or both: this make them dangerous. But the hate-mongering is so virulent. And the deceit and the lies. Many of these assholes (and the ultimate form, the complete asshole) are not salvageable, but some might be. The newest variety, the professional asshole (e.g., Faux "news" "entertainers") may not be redeemable. Rupert, D & C KKK, Mr. bad hair: there are so many contenders for AntiChrist. And the rape of Mother Nature is justified by the motive of making more money. The idea that humans have the responsibility of stewardship over nature, rather than dominion, just gets in the way of greed. So Georgia Pacific's multiple rapes do not get fines of billions; and if the EPA goes, there will be no stopping them. Listen to a great song: "Assholes on Parade" by Timbuk 3
Christians-In-Name-Only and their evil
The definition of Christian charity; a good christian does not benefit from the misery or misfortune of others. Wow, there sure are a lot of Christians-in-name-only out there. Even many clergy preach hate. When the Pope (a righteous dude to be sure) preached love, the spin doctors try to reinterpret. Did you know that there are many new circles in hell being developed for apologists, lobbyists, spin-doctors, etc? Some are disguised as heaven as a joke on the self-righteous. The wack-jobs who want to hasten the Apocalypse (the Rapture? right!) do not care about your grandchildren's future. So why care about this world, nature, or people? That is what I call evil. These CINO ignore 1 Timothy 6.10 : "For the desire of money is the root of all evils" and Matthew 19.24 : "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven." These are the same repressed people who kept the Gnostic Gospels out of the (their) bible long ago. Which should prove that men created the bible. And no god would be such a bad editor to start with a book full of repetition of names. You can't buy a ticket to heaven.
The lesser of the two
There's been only one great President in my lifetime: FDR. Lots of disappointments: Tricky Dicky, Clinton for getting rid of Glass-Steagall, Obama for going after whistleblowers and too many drones, Bush for setting the bar so low with his unusual combination of great ignorance, stupidity and deceit. (Bush did more to devalue a Yale and Harvard diploma than anyone. Though in the dictionary his photo in the "smarmy" entry has been replaced by Walker's.) And the reverence for Reagan puzzles me: a mediocre actor (divorced, too--so wicked) with a smile and the ability to act presidential while playing a puppet so well that no one knows when the Alzheimer's kicked in. Putting him on Mount Rushmore? Wow, vote just to send these people back under their rocks. In Wisconsin we had Joe McCarthy as our shame. But we had LaFollette, Nelson (Earth Day), Proxmire, and Feingold (the only Senator with the sense and courage to vote against the so-called Patriot's Act). We now we have Walker, Ryan, and cronies. FORWARD is the motto, not backward. Vote just to vote out the scum (it's not just cream that rises to the top) that too many morons voted in.
Some say my vote doesn't count
Well, with the movement (again ALEC, KKKoch, Faux as culprits behind the facade) to disenfranchise various segments of the population (poor, non-white, any the rich want to use but not help) the right to vote is threatened. Vote before you no longer can. The poll tax could return. And a vote might not be counted due to corruption of those who run the process. 2004 and 2008 had lots of fraud perpetuated by election officials. Wisconsin had more not long ago. Yes, that's a worry. SO if a million of you vote and half are lost, well, that other chunk could turn elections that would get us fairer judges and politicians not bought off by rich people and corporations. Citizens United shows how the Supreme Court (which pretends not to be activist) has become perverted by hanging out with the wrong crowd. And if corporations have the rights of personhood and the rights of a corporation, then a corporation should be subject to capital punishment in the form of charter revocation. Nothing is too big to be hanged. All the privatization talk (imagine if there were private fireman, who only put out the fires of subscribers) is about worshipping money and valuing its acquisition. Vote out these people who have sold their souls and could bring back the debtor's prison!
Wake up People!
Democracy is under attack. And democracy is a process that requires work. And now that work is voting. If you don't care, you could lose more than your right to vote. And you can boycott, organize, talk to the oblivious, search for news that tries to be truthful and factual. Revolutions are bloody. Peaceful change via the vote is slow but essential. However, It's only a first step.
Signed "...just some guy, you know..."