I have voted in every election I’ve been eligible to vote in since I became eligible to vote. If I missed a vote somewhere, it is news to me.
I don’t know why I consider it so important to vote. I don’t know why I care so much about voting. I don’t remember my parents being sticklers about it. I don’t recall having a heart to heart conversation with either of them about how important it is to vote.
My first presidential vote was for Jimmy Carter and I can’t begin to describe how empowering it felt to have been on the “winning” side. I figured it would be all “downhill” for progressive politics from there.
Oh, well. C’est la vie.
I was alive during the crucible of the Sixties where the slogan “trust no one under 30” was immensely popular even without paid social influencers and the internet. In hindsight, it sounds ludicrous but, in the Sixties, odds were you were not part of the swamp if you were under thirty. These days, on the other hand, it seems there are plenty of swamp dwellers under thirty.
The other slogan of the era was “Question Authority”.
I wasn’t in the ‘trust no one under thirty’ camp but I was fully on board with the questioning of authority paradigm. Which makes me a cynic. Which, you would think, would have made me a voting skeptic.
But I am the opposite of that.
I see voting as a civic duty. That may be because I fall for the “chicken in every pot” promise of every politician. Maybe it’s because I want to believe their evanescent bromides. Maybe it’s because I find it so hard to believe that the two common parties are so evenly split and that we continually have this push-me/pull-you scenario unfolding when it’s clear to me that one group of sloganeers are advocating for the 95% of us while the other side is definitely looking out for the well-to-do who have no need to be coddled, and I can’t understand how every morning when I awake it is just as likely we will be dragged back into the Dark Ages as it is we will flirt with a new Age of Enlightenment.
I know change is scary. Within my own life, I resist change with a vengeance. But, as a country, the majority of us want progress. The majority wants change. You can’t progress without change.
The side resisting change is pleased when eligible voters become vote skeptics. They are happy with disgruntled customers of democracy. They want to gum up the works. They want you to be resigned about voting. Or indifferent. Or frustrated.
Surveys say Americans want change, yet they keep re-electing those who seek to impede progress. Let me check off the many reasons for this: the gerrymandering of state districts to ensure imbeciles like Majorie Taylor Greene get elected, the Citizens United ruling by the US Supreme Court which opened the flood gates for dark money in politics, entertainment media outlets masquerading as news outlets spewing propaganda, voter disenfranchisement, purging of voter’s rolls, voter suppression.
Take a look at this “literacy test” used as late as the 1960’s in Louisiana and given, no doubt, solely to potential Black voters:
Or this one from Georgia:
Holy smokes! If the Georgia one was given to every eligible voter at the time - not just Blacks - there may not have been more than a hand full of people voting. Those two documents should give you an idea the lengths to which those who hold the reins of power will go to take away your fellow Americans’ right to vote.
I mean, besides the burning crosses on the lawn, the poll taxes, ID requirements and the rocks hurled through the bay window at the stroke of midnight.
There’s a huge battle going on regarding voting rights. Any state with a majority of anti-progressive legislators controlling both houses of their government is considering curtailing the expansion of voting rights. Even the state of Washington, with its cowed collection of conservative cads, has had a few anti-voting rights bills introduced only to die out of loneliness and boredom since neither State chamber is willing to give them the time of day.
I’m convinced the provision in the Georgia bill which is getting the most attention is a classic red herring. It’s the provision making it illegal to provide food and water to voters standing in line to vote. I’m convinced that aspect of the bill was thrown in there to distract the media from talking about the more onerous parts of the bill. And there are plenty of onerous parts like the provision that makes it easier to throw out election results.
Remember how the former guy who called himself president, who took orders for four years from the Kremlin, who exhorted his digitally “lobotomized” followers to kill his vice president on January 6th, was recorded asking for 11,000 something (it was a specific number because it was exactly one more than he needed) more votes in the state of Georgia? With Georgia’s latest anti-voting rights bill in place, it will be easier for that to happen.
I want people to vote. I don’t care if they are not fully aware of the issues. As much as I am a misanthrope I think there is a better chance for progress if the greatest number of people voted in any and all elections. From dog-catcher to president. I think there would be a better chance for progress because there would be a better chance for the politician with the better messaging to win. I think the more voters who vote, the harder it will be for the ‘crooked candidate’ to win.
I know. I was the idealistic 20 year old who thought Carter was the ‘beginning of America’s beautiful friendship’ with progress.
Call me a misanthropic idealist. Call me simple minded.
Just don’t call for the last round until I get out of the bathroom.
Regarding Black voter disenfranchisement with some gallows humor, here’s an excerpt from the novel, “Black Like Me.”
Also, more gallows humor. Not too far from the truth.
