As we gather here tonight, lots of elections are either called, being tallied, or the polls aren’t yet closed. Here in my city we’ve had an exciting election that has us welcoming a new Mayor, a bunch of new City Councillors, and a four vote difference between two candidates in one race. FOUR votes. Unfortunately in a five-way race for four at-large seats, only one of the two candidates I worked for won — and I’m trying not to assume that for the unsuccessful one (my personal favorite of all five), it’s because she’s an immigrant who wears a headscarf while the other four are white citizens-from-birth. Grab a beverage and remind yourself how you can participate in Top Comments, then join me below the Story Break for a conversation I had online today...
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So somewhere on social media, I posted my annual “It’s Election Day, if you don’t vote then don’t complain because you didn’t participate”. A friend commented in reply that they didn’t have much to vote on where they lived. And this:
Mayor & City Council, but I don't know anything about local city politics. I know the Mayor's name but can’t name a City Councillor if I had to.
I responded that local races are vital, and where I’ve put my energy since 2016. I know that most of you reading this are the choir; you know the importance of local races. It would have been easy for me to scoff at someone not knowing what’s going on in their local races, but…
It wasn’t all that long ago that on Election Day I’d look at the ballot going who the hell are all those people running for City Council / School Committee / Register of Probate / etc. I either guessed, hoped I remembered something I read or heard, or simply didn’t vote on those ‘downballot races’. And this was after I’d found and gotten involved here at Daily Kos, so really I had zero excuses for being that naive.
I won’t ever criticize someone who DOES vote, for not voting ‘enough’. I will encourage them to learn more, share my thoughts on why local elections matter in a more visceral way because the day to day decisions in city and towns have a huge tangible effect on us. My hope is that I can help people become more involved, so that one day they’re educating others on the value of knowing who all those folks on the ballot are.
How did your local races (if any) go today? Come hang in the comments, after perusing the trio of Top Comments, Mojo and Pictures that BeninSC’s graciously brought to us tonight.
Top Comments
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down. Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From Rashaverak:
Comes this comment by Cynizen, in Aldous J Pennyfarthing’s diary on Twitler’s idiotic comments on folks easily cutting through his ‘impenetrable’ wall.
From LinQness:
Comes this magnificent rant comment by Angela Marx about the outrages in present-day American health care.
Highlighted by Elizabeth NYC:
Is this comment by Mokurai with goat videos! #attentiongoatvideolovers
Highlighted by ozymanIUS:
Is this marvelous comment graphic by duff1680!
Highlighted by agnostic:
Is this punchline comment by lineatus, referring to Melania, on ‘immigrants taking jobs no one else wants.’
Highlighted by txdoubledd:
Is this clever comment by quaoar!
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, November 4th, 2019, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
Top Pictures
November 5th 2019. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter! (Yes, we realize one picture is basically included three times. It’s the kind of thing that can happen with images captured by algorithm. Sorry about that!)