Don't Vote!

[demwing]

Because things are perfect just the way they are...

[calimary]

1. Unless you're happy to have the bad guys win and take the White House away,

And once they do that, they'll take the Supreme Court and all the rest of your rights and everything you (or your parents or older sibs) may have fought for - AWAY, too.

[leeroysphitz]

4. Oh noes! The rebublican boogeymen are going to come and take our medicar and social security away...

[bhikkhu]

15. There's a long list of things they would like to do...

I'd much rather not see them get the chance again, having lived through the Reagan years, then the Bush years, was hell enough.

[emulatorloo]

16. I agree - Republicans are completely harmless

[calimary]

35. Sneer all you want. I have women friends who were SO SURE that NOTHING would EVER happen

to compromise or weaken the right to choose. Several of them were staunch republi-CONS. "Naaah, it's not gonna happen." "Not gonna happen." OH YEAH? Just look at the state of Kansas now. Look at the several hundred different bills in state legislatures all over the country where a woman's right to have the last word over what happens to HER body is rapidly being whittled away, eaten away around the edges, closed down, curtailed, minimized, and made FAR more difficult and inaccessible. That's CONservative activism on display, and it's effective, and it's unrelenting, never-ending, and deviously creative - they've spent years strategizing about THIS issue alone, and they've figured out all kinds of devious ways to attack and erode the right to choose.

Think it won't happen? All they need is ONE MORE Supreme Court justice appointment, and it's a done deal. Do not think for ONE MINUTE that there aren't legions of lawsuits all over the country that were filed to challenge a woman's right to choose, that were filed deliberately to work their way upwards through the court system to the point of ultimate challenge in the Supreme Court. This has been a distressingly impressive campaign that is poised to bear fruit all over the place.

Similar things have been orchestrated over the years against collective bargaining, and the right to organize, and other kinds of workers' rights. Check Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Indiana, and numerous other states - NOW, and warming up in the bullpen. They've been plotting and planning and laying in the preparations and carefully and strategically positioning people so they're all able to run for governor at once with a good chance of winning, and then the overthrow begins. And it's only with strong and equally relentless efforts on the part of the people themselves that SOME of this is being held at bay. For now. Only as long as the people can keep the faith about fighting back like this. And we don't have as much of that on the side of a woman's right to choose.

Similar things have been evolving over the years, regarding other issues, whether it's rolling back environmental protections and regulations, giving corporations the same rights as people, immigration, gay rights, recognizing the value of science and the need for climate protection, banking and high-finance reform, campaign reform, voting rights, and yes, the social contract, the dreaded social safety net of Social Security and Medicare in which the common good is addressed, Of the People, By the People and For the People, as an intrinsic part of the Founders' original pact on the enhancement of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. NUMEROUS things.

Laugh and sneer all you want.

I take this deeply seriously because as a woman formerly of childbearing age, it affected me, and it affects my friends and my daughter and her friends and all my boys' girlfriends now. And their friends. And it makes me wish that somebody REALLY started fighting back where it would have a personal impact. Like proposing, pushing, and enacting legislating to curtail the easy access to or perhaps use of Viagra and Cialis and all that other stuff. Like considering the cost differentials between insurance coverage of issues that affect men's sexuality versus what applies to women's insterests from mammograms and breast cancer screenings to pap smears and cervical/ovarian testing - and fixing that inequality. How do you think men would like it if the government started meddling in THOSE very personal and intimate issues - in which the government really has no place? Well, women don't like it, either. Perhaps the above approach would change the dialogue and perspective in this over-arching choice issue.

And in this day and age especially, we are BOUND to be vigilant. It's something we as a citizenry MUST do because once you win rights, they don't stay won. There's always a pushback that wants to nullify those rights they think you don't deserve to have. And if nullification isn't possible then a relentless erosion of those rights is what's called for, diminishing them, limiting them, curtailing them, postponing them, tangling them in red tape, adjusting the record and the public rhetoric about them to fit the new anti-rights agenda.

Scoff all you want. I choose to remain vigilant.

[demwing]

44. Clearly, you do NOT think that things are perfect just the way they are...

So I expect you will be voting, correct?

Of course you will :)

[demwing]

20. Did you honestly think I was advocating not voting?

Really?

I didn't think I could have applied a thicker layer, but I guess I was wrong :(

[Lunabelle]

2. Don't vote!

so then we can really be screwed when the rethuglicans take over. That'll show the Democrats.

[leeroysphitz]

6. Actually it will but hey if you love the staus quo so much keep voting for wall street.

[BzaDem]

28. It will show the Democrats that they have to make up for lost votes by moving to the right.

If that is the message you want to send them, I'm sure it will be received loud and clear. For each vote for a third party, they know that they will have to move sufficiently towards the median voter to make up for it. Hopefully for the country's sake, they won't have to move too much further towards the median voter.

[leeroysphitz]

37. I hve some bad news for you. Dems have been using EVERYTHING as an excuse to move right.

When they lose they have to move right to win. When they win they see it as a mandate to move right. When need a new option.

[Quantess]

38. Apparently so.

Hard to deny that.

[Psycholitics]

3. Our votes don't count anyway

Word

[Lunabelle]

5. So, then don't vote

That'll show them!

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. The view from my window

suggests that the bad guys have already won.

I can't remember the last time any fucking politician sought to advance and protect my very pedestrian needs and interests. Fuck 'em.

[Ozymanithrax]

8. Use your vote wisely...

voting only for those that earn your vote...or deserve your first time trust.

[RKP5637]

9. Yep, don't vote so you'll know if your vote might have counted. n/t

[gateley]

10. Rec, but to no avail. I wonder if people think you're serious! GREAT post! nt

[demwing]

18. Is it still sarcasm

if I have to say so explicitly? LOL

Thanks for getting it :)

[gateley]

19. Yeah, kind of loses the cleverness, doesn't it? I think your "wry"

came through loud and clear -- well done! :headbang:

[LWolf]

11. I always vote.

Your attempt at sarcasm just falls flat. Why wouldn't I vote? It's a civic duty.


That doesn't mean I always vote the way you want me to. Trying to bully me into voting for someone or something I don't support has never, in 33 years of voting, worked.

[desertrat777]

12. Voting is part of the total package

Yes, we do need to vote. But now we are realizing that voting Democrat is like voting for "Republican-Lite." Nevertheless, there are options for us patriotic, civic-minded citizens of our great country.

We can, as a friend at CNN aptly pointed out, get involved in our local Democratic Party. There are positions that are often for the taking, and if you are interested in ending corporate fascism in America, it may help. A massive involvement in the Democratic Party may lead to more responsive representatives in Congress.

It will take a lot - or at least take what we have not tried before - to straighten out the dismal state of our political process in a way that returns our political representatives to actually representing us, We the People. That is, if they ever really did actually represent us at any time in history.

Being an optimist feels better than being an ooptimist.

[LWolf]

27. There ARE options.

Not all are allowable discussion on DU. All but two, "Vote for McCain/Palin/Satan????" or "Stay Home" are the only choices acknowledged by those trying to bully people into lesser evil votes. It doesn't serve their purpose to admit other options.

[Telly Savalas]

40. So you're hinting at the

"we're too inept to exercise any power within the Democratic Party, but we'll somehow form an independent organization which can challenge them" option?

If a candidate can't win a primary which doesn't include the most conservative elements of the electorate, then they're certainly going to have bigger problems in the general election.

[LWolf]

41. I'm not hinting at anything.

Of course, 3rd party and independent votes are choices, whether we are allowed to mention them on DU or not. They also aren't the only choices.

THAT is my point. There are plenty of choices out there, and artificially limiting them for the purposes of propaganda intended to bully people into getting in line is less than ethical, from my pov.

[demwing]

23. Of course its a civic duty

the fact that I have to come back to this thread and exaplin that is mind boggling

[LWolf]

29. Your thread title

seems to be sarcasm crafted to bully people into "lesser evil" votes by suggesting that people unhappy with Obama will abandon their civic duty.

In reality, there are always more options.

If that's not your intent, clarify it, and you might get different responses.

[demwing]

32. My title suggest you shouldn't vote IF you like things the way they are

Which is clearly a commentary on the need to vote if you DON'T like things the way they are, without any indication of HOW one should vote.

If you are a Dem, and are unhappy with ANYTHING - Get out and VOTE
If you are a Republican, and are unhappy with ANYTHING - get out and VOTE
If you are anyone, and are unhappy with ANYTHING - Get out and VOTE

Anything else that anyone read into my post came from them, not from me.

[LWolf]

34. Thanks for the clarification.

:thumbsup:

[emulatorloo]

13. Ibtl n/t

[demwing]

22. I hope not

I'm counting on the fact that the mods will see this as the sarcasm that was intended, but clearly missed by some

[emulatorloo]

25. Thanks for explaining it

Mods seem to think that other thread is sarcasm too, I guess

[DinahMoeHum]

14. Unrecc'd.

in more ways than one...

[demwing]

21. Sheesh

it's no fun when I have to tag the sarcasm...

[demwing]

17. How many people in this thread think things are "Perfect Just The Way They Are"???

and how many took my post seriously because I didn't add a freaking :sarcasm: tag?

[AsahinaKimi]

24. I have always learned to add the

:sarcasm: tag. If you don't, you can expect to be eaten up.. and then spit out.

[demwing]

45. I hear you, but I have always tried to read with comprehension

and not just respond to the little bit of data in the Subject Line...

[Autumn]

26. How funny.

:crazy:

[Brickbat]

30. Go ahead and vote, but understand that it's the easiest part of the process, not the hardest. It

will take more than voting to change what's going on.

[Motown_Johnny]

31. or better yet, just vote a straight (D) ticket and forget about it

simple and easy

[DU GrovelBot]

33. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

This week is our third quarter 2011 fund drive. Democratic Underground is
a completely independent website. We depend on donations from our members
to cover our costs. Please take a moment to donate! Thank you!

Click here to donate

[Rex]

36. Well, it is a free country as they say.

Personally, I want to vote. It gives me the illusion of still living in a Democracy.

[demwing]

43. sigh...

did you forget your sarcasm tag, leave it off as a commentary on my post, or just not intend use it? :)

[Gordon Shumway]

39. Sounds like a George Carlin bit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIraCchPDhk

[demwing]

42. thank you for getting it

:)