I want to address someone I don't normally address on this blog: the person who's planning not to vote on Tuesday.
Now, if that's you, you've most likely already closed this blogpost. You don't need to hear another shrill rant about the importance of voting. And God knows I have no interest in giving one. So this won't be that.
For that small percentage of you that are still reading, though, I want you to know this: I'm just like you. I can't say why you, personally, are going to be sitting out this election but I'm going to guess it's one of a few reasons.
The first is that you might not have time. You work a job, maybe two jobs, have kids at home, an actual life and shit to deal with. You really can't go spend an hour waiting in line to vote, even if you want to. And I'm sure if that's you, you don't need another "make the time" speech, and I sure as shit don't want to give you one. You know your own schedule and your own life.
Others of you are shitbirds. You don't care about voting, civic duty, or probably much of anything else. Nothing's going to turn you around, so I'm not even going to waste my time trying with this paragraph. Shitbirds are going to be shitbirds.
But for some of you not voting is a deliberate choice. Not a failure. Not an oversight. A conclusion arrived upon after careful consideration.
Maybe you're disgusted with the candidates. It's hard to blame you. The politicians who have made it through the muddy stream of popular election and remained good and honorable are few and far between. Most of these people are power-hungry, or amoral, or, perhaps worst of all, rich fucks who were born rich and who have that shit-eating grin of someone who knows they'll always get their way. That's who politicians are, with exceptions being few and far between, so you're not wrong to dislike them.
Maybe you think your vote doesn't matter. And that is also hard to argue with. It really doesn't. Not your vote. Yours will be diluted by the votes of 50 million of your closest friends and neighbors. Some of them are hopeless morons, and a lot of the ones that aren't just straight up will disagree with your views. And your vote will be further diluted by gerrymandering, voter suppression, and a system that's set up to enfranchise some at the expense of others. And that's all before you even get to the elecoral college.
Maybe you just think the whole goddamned system is a mess. And that, my friend, is also hard to argue against.
I'm the same as you. I think the American system of governance is utterly corrupt. It barely counts as a democracy, in the sense that the people rule. And, yes, I understand how a representative democracy is supposed to work, but kids, this ain't it. Like I mentioned above, there's gerrymandering, there's voter suppression, there are a million little tricks and tools that let the people in charge keep the plebes like you and me away from the decision-making process. And that's just the illicit stuff. With Citizens United bribery is legal in our country. The rich are calling the shots, and they've set the whole thing up to be as close to an autocratic, kleptocratic oligarchy as possible while maintaining the barest sheen of voting to keep the masses from revolting.
I'm probably not making a very good argument for you to vote on Tuesday, am I?
Well, I agree. The whole thing's a mess, the two party system is a joke, and we'd all be better off if things were very, very different. What is really called for is a revolution. Tear the whole thing down and start again. That's how I've felt for a long time. I didn't vote in 2000 for every reason I've listed above and then some.
And you know who won the presidential election in 2000? That's right: Al Gore. But you know who got seated in 2000? That's right, George W. Bush. One of the absolute worst presidents of all time, although, sadly, he seems like a downright statesman considering the current occupant of the White House.
I lived in horror through the Bush years. It almost seems quaint now, but for me it was an utter shitshow. I got sent to Iraq for...well, no reason really, when you get right down to it. I almost got sent back to Afghanistan after I'd left the army because of Bush-era policies. Just about everything was a nightmare. Personal privacy is a joke now, after however many Patriot Acts.
Sometimes I think about what the state of the country would be like today if Gore had been seated. Maybe historical forces were already in play, and things wouldn't be terribly different. But when I think about Gore, a dedicated environmentalist, being president for eight years right before, you know, we now get summers in November, I truly believe everything would have been very, very different.
See, here's the thing: in spite of all the shenanigans and the electoral college and all that shit, we do still have elections in this country. They've been reduced to a shadow of actually representing popular desires, sure. But until an Emperor Palpatine from "Star Wars"-level villain steps in and actually declares America the First Global Empire, elections are still going to dictate who is in power.
You've already figured all of this out. You're smart enough to see that all these assholes, these moneyed interests, and hell, let's just be blunt, the Republican Party, are putting their fingers on the scales in every way they can to keep your voice from being heard. They're laughing at your childish wish for a representative democracy. They think it's quaint, and they can just legislate a million tiny structural changes that will prevent you from having a voice in how you're governed. And they are loving the fact that you've become disenchanted and decided not to vote.
Look, here's where we're at, my friends. There is genuinely a "Star Wars"-level villain in the White House. You've been paying attention. You've seen that he wants nothing more than to abolish the media, and the next step is probably abolishing free and fair elections, or at least the husk of what used to call free and fair elections.
Remember when I said above the system is utterly corrupt? I changed that from "hopelessly" corrupt. Because it's not hopeless. There is hope. Just a shred.
This is it. This is our chance. Maybe our last chance. All the bastards trying to hold us down are expecting a whimper this year. Well, the only way we fight back is if we roar. If you go out, even just you, the people who have given careful consideration to the matter and decided voting is futile, if even you go out and vote that scale with the finger on it can flip the other way. And it'll snap on the bastards who've been holding it like a mousetrap.
Elections are still being held. They may not be next year. We're really at that point. But this year we need everyone in America to get out there and exercise the only option left to us for fixing our brokedick system. Maybe after that the powers that be will be so spooked that they'll make a few moves to make a few things right. Maybe gradually we can reclaim our representative democracy, make it worthy of the name again. But if you don't make a move this year, the whole fucking thing could be sunk. And that's not me being Chicken Little, that's just me being a pragmatist. Like you.
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