(Today my diary is given over to the words of someone I respect deeply. She's "just a housewife", as she says, but what you all need to know is that she is really a hero, and speaks searingly because she climbs high mountains every single day. Rather than give you a litany of the array of challenges she overcomes daily, let's just say she is a lot like all of us, only more so. Crossposted at
http://www.democracycellproject.net/... where she is part of the choir.)
Tutterfly writes:
I voted the other day. Voted again, in a precinct with over 500 registered voters, and I was number 87 at four in the afternoon. Voted, and came away discouraged because hundreds of my neighbors did not. They were busy, or it was raining, or they didn't know or like anyone on the ballot. It's enough to make me weep in frustration and outrage, and to imagine with bitterness what silence and apathy is going to do to all of us.
You can't move a certain segment of people. If they never registered and never voted, they probably won't, even now, and when they are agog at their freedoms being taken away, they will be shocked, but it won't ever occur to them that they should have voted when they had the chance. And, if they are registered, and they only vote in the 'big' elections, they will still feel like they did their duty.
I'm past, over and done with blaming the media, and the punditocracy, and the talking heads, and the pollsters, and yes, even the politicians themselves over how bad things are. Whomever they have sought to reach or stir up has been reached or thoroughly stirred. Rabid right or angry left, it's all the same, all the time, every day.
Everyone is dissatisfied somewhere along the line. I feel bad for the rabid right sometimes, because I think they might be realizing their ideals aren't working out quite so well with the people they put their faith in. Something isn't clicking and ticking along the way they planned with their big majority in place, and they don't seem to be able to figure out why. If they voted 'R' with their religion on their sleeve, and they now feel like their religion was used, that's a hard pill to swallow. If they went 'R' to increase their wealth, well, how come they are paying more while making less, but all those big biz 'R's' that promised them they were going to get wealthy too - well, it hasn't worked out? Golly, that has to hurt. And, if they were part of the safety, war-winning, WMD believers, geez, that didn't pan out either.
It's a dilemma for them, you know. They don't like who they have in charge, and they don't see too much out there that's part of their party that's going to give them what they crave, but the option of voting 'D' is one they will resist, if they possibly can. Or, they can just not vote at all. I do not welcome this; a bunch of Rebublicans staying home on election day is not an endorsement of Democratic ideals.
That kind of action continues to foster the 'we win, you lose' attitude that is poisonous to all of us. I've waited, sadly, for Democrats to come forward and say to Republican voters who are disillusioned that the Democrats are not out to beat them for the sake of beating them, but you don't hear that. Every time someone of some note comes forward and says they were wrong to follow the party line and the rubber stamp Republicans, I hear, 'too late sucker, it's all your fault, he's your president, you did this to us.' How does that sound to the person who feels ill used by their party, but doesn't want to be raked over the coals? I know it's hard, but isn't their remorse enough?
What can the Democrats do, or the Independents, for that matter, that speaks to recovering 'R's', that makes them want to be a part of something that they can claim to be proud of? I'm not a fan of 'we can do better.' Sorry, to all of you who go for that line, but it leaves me cold. 'Had enough?' is even worse. Really, what is needed is something that speaks to people of being something, building something, caring outwardly for the people, the planet.
I've heard something at least twice in recent weeks, and it makes sense to me. People, real people who want to belong somewhere, with pride and dignity have said, 'don't talk politics to me.' I believe there are millions of fools who do their thinking via talking points, and catchy phrases, and regretfully, they may be unreachable. I'm thinking of the people who are fed up with politics dumbed down to them to the point that they tune out as soon as the talking starts because they know that they have heard it all before.
I carry this idea with me, that if someone within the Democratic party came forward and said, "I have a couple of hard truths to put out here, and I'm not going to pretty it up, or try to make myself look good while I'm saying it, but we have things to clean up and it's going to cost us time and energy and money. What is done cannot be undone, but it can be stopped or changed, and there is not one person, or one party who is going to get it done alone. Some of us have let fear be our guide, and some of us have worried more about keeping our positions, and some of us have put donors and dollars above the common good. It has cost us more than I am willing to continue paying. If my being honest is going to cost me votes, so be it. Whatever name you give it: deception, lie, untruth, half truth, it's all political posturing, and if we don't seek to stop it now, then no vote will ever really matter."
Don't talk politics to me. I know everyone in Washington is scrambling to get a foot on the other guy's throat as an election issue. How's it playing with the voters? It's not. Senators are running for re-election while running for President but not declaring it. Stop running for President, people, we know it and we are not amused. Our issues are not simple ones, and when you focus on YOUR big picture, you obliterate us. We know you are ALL trying to play to the money with your votes and your public pronouncements, but there are many of us out here who are barely hanging on, and we want representation.
Imagine a country where possibly 90% of eligible voters actually voted. We hear all about GOTV efforts, but how successful has it really been? Those of us who do vote, every election, every primary, we are stuck dragging the dead stinking whales that refuse to speak up and be heard. Apathy is the incumbent's best friend. So, my dream speech up there is never going to be spoken by an elected official. I'm a realist, even if I do entertain a dream now and then.
So, it is on the people who are willing to wade through the crap, to listen to the foolishness that passes for governance, and the polished posturing and pointing to find out if anyone out there is the real deal. While I will go along with the presumption that the Democrats are more likely to provide oversight, and will try to stop the runaway disaster of this awful administration (regime, really) I'm not willing to believe that every Democrat today cares any more than the Republican incumbent they are trying to unseat. There is party above country on both sides. I don't pity the candidate who has to run knowing that he/she is facing voters who think that of them and nothing more.
November will be here very quickly. There is going to be enough mud flung to fill the Grand Canyon, accusations aplenty, and outright lies about people on ballots from small towns to the biggest cities. Corruption, ethics, morals, values, truth, justice and the American way. Some will tune in, many will tune out. There are great preachers out there preaching to their choirs, and if by some miracle some 'non-base' type out there wades through it all and finds themself voting come election day I'll be overjoyed, even if I don't agree with who they vote for. But, I'm not holding my breath.
I'd suggest that people turn off their televisions, leave the newspaper on the floor, and go out and walk among your neighbors. The media is NOT going to carry a positive message, not when dirt sells so well. If you know the message and the messenger for your town, your state, it's going to be up to you to deliver that information.
Something has got to be done come November. I don't blog much, if at all anymore, because I'm smart enough to know I'm guilty of preaching to a choir myself. The WEB is a tool, and it's a good one. I'm not using it to the exclusion of everything else, I just can't see it that way anymore. Look someone in the eye, like I did on election day. I found three people on my street who said it was 'no use' voting, and I shamelessly bullied them into changing their minds. I was not nice, because I don't think 'nice' is going to get it done. It took no effort at all for me to put it like this, 'You see my kids out there in my car? Well, I'm voting for them, their sake, their future, and I really take offense to your thinking there is 'no use' in them having all the rights and freedoms you are so willing to piss away.' (I said I'm not very nice.)
I know one thing, and even if everyone disagrees with me, I still reserve the right to speak my mind. The biggest danger we face as a country does not come from without, but from our own government, and the enablers who have allowed us to come to this point. We should never, Never, NEVER be discussing spying on our neighbors as though it's a good or necessary thing. If this continues to pass as national security, good government, legality or leadership, then by all means go vote the next time you get a chance, because when it's the LAST time you get to vote, you'll miss it. And, for those who are willing to let civil liberties go, who are willing to see the Constitution relegated to the trash, trampled and tossed away, when that vote you never used isn't around anymore, when it's all over and done with, then will you finally be safe? Whatever you give up today, you are giving it up for future generations, and suspicion breeds suspicion. A little warrantless wiretapping today could become being disappeared tomorrow. That could never happen here, is that what you said? Famous last words, if I ever heard any.
I have not written a rant like this in nearly a year, and who knows, I may not do it again any time soon, and if anyone is shocked to hear from me again, don't be. I'm still the same me I always was.
I'm TUTTERFLY and I approve this message!!!!