Attention nonparticipants

[substitute]

This is for all you Green-voting, non-voting, "anarchist" types who don't vote because "they're all the same".

Wake the fuck up.

They're not all the same. The people who won yesterday want to take away reproductive rights, roll back civil rights, dump a huge tax burden on working people, strengthen entrenched monopolies, chop down every tree in North America, and send us to war for little reason.

I see the arguments that "I can't give my vote to the opposition because they're slimy and annoying" and I have to laugh. Folks, politics is not about whether you feel beautiful and pure and ideologically correct leaving the booth. Politics is practical. It's about what you can accomplish with that vote, in the real world where we all live. It's not about reading 'zines and drinking wheatgrass juice and being part of a totally ignored nouveau hippie subculture. This stuff has real-world consequences, and not just for you and your painfully correct friends.

So I hope you get what you wanted, anyway. Maybe at the next party you can put on your hemp cap and sweet talk some girl into bed with your tales of how you stood up to the Man and didn't cave in and vote for some compromise candidate because you're keepin' it real. Or maybe you just got to stop off for a latte on your way to work instead of punching a hole in some cardboard.

In any case the rest of us are going to be spending the next two years watching George II and his cronies take away our country. Thanks for nothing.

Comments

[loose-joints.livejournal.com]

Here are some "facts" that illustrate why a protest vote in the current political climate is ill-advised. The Senate controls Judiciary nominations. First the nominee goes to committee and then goes to the whole Senate for a vote. In the last Congress, Fienstein and Leahy - two most senior member on the committe at the time - managed to block some terrifying judges from getting on the Federal Bench. Now the Repubs set the agenda, which means that Bush is going to have a much easier time getting nominations to the full floor. And unless he re-nominates Robert Bork, Judicial nominations are not exactly the sort of thing that garner huge attention. Hell, Clarence Thomas made it. Now, consider this scenario. Associate Justice O'Connor has said she wants to retire. She wrote joined the majority in PP v. Casey, the case that kept Roe from being overturned; but weakened it. If she retires we will probably get someone like Scalia. Bush has said that he considers Scalia a model jurist. For why Scalia is scary, see his dissent in Romer v. Evans , where he compared homosexuals to child molestors and argued that discriminating against homosexuals was a right since homosexuals are immoral. Also, see his stance on abortion, rights of criminal defendants and his joint opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick for more scary anti-gay bigotry. Also, while you're at it, check Rhenquist and company in the majority of DeShaney v. Winnebago County DSS. While I don't expect everyone to read these, the point is that these decisions highlight what is so scary and so powerful about the High Court. A Republican senate can replace a moderate like O'Connor with a fire breathing conservative. Think about what that means. The Dems may not represent your ideological views to a tee; but that's why they're a party. They are not your PAC. If you think Dems and Repubs are all the same think about who they put up for the Court. So, in summation, great go vote green and when Roe is overturned take a long hard look in the mirror.

[nosrialleon.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Kate...

Clearly some folks were not keeping up their end of the conversation, here... Cheerleading is so much more effectual than logic in debates that I can't figure out why anyone would resort to facts anymore.

Fact: Most people did vote with their hearts; they did not show up at the polls. And they can blow me. The heart is an ineffectual tool for governance; even for self-governance.

Fact: I voted with my heart. My heart and my head and my gut feelings and instincts and my anger, hatred, and dissatisfaction all agreed that this was not an election in which to engage in speculative voting strategies. This was an election that was all about keeping the EVIL FUCKS OUT OF THE CASTLE. The American people just handed the keys over to the evil fucks, and they are just hopping up and down with glee that we were stupid enough to do so.

Fact: We are now fucked. Not only did we not send the message to the loyal opposition that we wanted them to loyally oppose; we sent them the message that they should just get the fuck out of the way. And even those within the loyal opposition party who vote with their heart in opposition to the excesses of the Republitards now exists in such sparse numbers as to be no more than the slightest of bothers.

So, thanks. Hope you're ready to make lots and lots of babies. Hope you're prepared to work like a dog, never get ahead, never achieve any kind of comfort level and then die, passing your enourmous debt on to your progeny. You can take your ball home and say 'I'm not playing' all you want; you can tell me 'no, you're part of the problem' all you want. But when these dickheads have successfully dismantled everything that is cool about this country you do not have the bragging rights of saying 'wait... I didn't vote for this! You did vote for it, not through bad voting philosophy - hell, I agree with you, but because you misread the current political landscape.

Welcome to Hell. Would you like fries with that?