Elections

I’m going to take a second to be totally unambiguous here: I know that I frequently use hyperbole and over-the-top exaggeration to make points. This is not one of those times. I’m being perfectly serious here. I have three requirements that I’m placing on you:

(1) On election day, I expect you to vote.

If you buy into the claptrap that we have no power, If all the smart, reasonable, educated people are convinced that we can’t make a difference, then it becomes true. Just as with jury duty: if we abdicate our responsibility and our civic duty, we leave it to morons to select our leaders and create our laws.

The cheating bastards may be able to swing small percentages with registration and voting machine shenanigans … but they will have a damn hard time swinging a landslide. To that end: Every single person with whom I talk agrees that we need change, that we need to get the current crop of bigoted blowhard republicans out of the house and senate. That we need a government of checks and balances, not out-of-control war-trains. We have to replace our congress with people who will push back on Bush’s insane policies and power grabs.

I talk to a lot of people, all over the country. We are not alone. We are the majority. We can do this.

Check your work carefully. If anyone impedes your attempt to vote, be forceful and be persistent. If there is a line, wait in it. If anything seems odd or off kilter, ask an election official. Do spot sanity checks. If you’re seriously concerned that something is wrong (if you see people being turned away or misdirected, for example), call the police.

(2) On the national offices (senate and house) I expect you to vote for the current leading non-republican.

This election has been described as a “single letter” competition. It’s “R” or “anything else.” The single most critical thing we can do this year is to put in place a congress who will stop Bush’s insanity. In just 6 years, this country has plummeted farther than I thought it ever could. We’ve surrendered many of our most precious ideals in the name of someone else’s profit. No matter the words that have come out their mouths … the republican led house and senate have abdicated their role as a guide and a balance on the executive. No matter how well intentioned any individual republican, their control of the congress means that their party sets the national agenda … and our young men and women die supporting it.

We must put a Democratic majority in place that can set an agenda in opposition to the current president.

I’ve never voted according to party affiliation in my entire adult life. I’ve always looked at the individual and made a case by case call. On my local elections, I’m still doing that. For the house and senate, I’m simply picking the Democrat. This is a damn shame for my Rhode Island republicans, since I actually like them better on all the issues. However, if I put republicans in office, then republicans will continue to set the national agenda. They will continue to acquiesce to Bush’s expansions of power and the tramplings of our most basic rights and freedoms.

Do not fool yourself about what a republican congress will mean: Even if your particular representative seems tough and fair minded. Even if your local democrat is a total fruit-loop, you are to vote for the most electable non-republican on your ballot.

(3) I expect you to be mouthy this week.

We are not as divided, as a nation, as we are led to believe. Even the folks with whom I disagree tend toward civil, mutual respect. The problem is that we are driven into a fighting fury by the two parties (who make a living emphasizing the divisions) and by the media (which knows that a good fight sells better than a bake sale). They goad us like matadors goad a bull … running us faster and faster until the fatal prick. Along the way, we come to suspect and fear our neighbors … to hate our very country.

We can act together on this, over time. Over time, we can push the parties out of politics, adapt our voting rules, and protect ourselves from the monster we’ve created. Right now, we simply need to get the republicans out of office so that we can regain our basic freedoms and dignities.

I expect you to make the election the conversation of the day. Bring it up in your office. Bring it up in your gym. Be that guy at the sewing circle, in the restaurant, or on the train.

Everyone must vote. Everyone must vote out the republicans. Everyone must take this one personally.