For election day
There has probably never been a time in US history when the differences between the parties were so vast and stark. All or almost all Democrats in Congress voted against ACA repeal, billionaire tax cuts, the Kavanaugh confirmation, and the rest of the enemy's barbarities; all or almost all Republicans in Congress voted for those things. Republicans will be essentially united in attacking gay equality, abortion rights, science, the ACA, Social Security, Medicare, voting rights, separation of church and state, environmental protection, and everything else we value; with rare exceptions, every Democrat we elect can be depended on to defend them.
Every Republican must go -- vote against them all. Even if an individual Republican seems decent and doesn't personally support the party's bigotry, theocracy, and kleptocracy, by the very act of running as Republican they are signalling that they regard those things as acceptable in the cause of whatever Republican policies they do run on. They are still a threat, still part of the problem.
If it were true that "voting doesn't change anything", the Republicans wouldn't be working so hard in so many places to stop "the wrong people" from doing it.
If you think your Democratic candidate isn't liberal enough, remember you're still better off with a conservative Democrat who sometimes votes the wrong way than with a Republican who almost always votes the wrong way. If you think your Democratic candidate is too leftist, remember that the party's overall moderation acts to constrain radicals, while among the Republicans, the greatest source of extremism is Trump himself.
A sobering message from Bill Maher:
Please also read Leonard Pitts Jr.
Update: This guy is worth listening to as well.
Put yourself in the place of those whose security and freedom and perhaps their very lives depend on the outcome.
Do it for the kids stolen from their parents and locked in cages. Do it for the people in Georgia and North Dakota and elsewhere who were robbed of the right their grandparents had to fight so hard for. Do it to show Trump who's boss.
If you need to relieve the tension a bit, our most entertaining political blogger, Shower Cap, has one last post before the election.
Here are some voter tips and resources (found via Hackwhackers).
For election night, here are poll-closing times for every part of the country.
[Image at top by Jennifer Reitman]
posted by Infidel753 at 7:53 PM
8 Comments:
Ha ha, love that first meme!
Very correct... we have to vote with pragmatism. It's not the time for ideological purity. A "tainted" Democrat is better than any Republican. At this point, it's a numbers game and the score at the end matters.
HAHA! That first image :)
Can't wait to see the results! I hope some sanity is restored for my neighbours to the south.
Voted this morning in NJ, no problems--and there was a solid turnout at around 8:00 am. That is a good sign.
"If it were true that "voting doesn't change anything", the Republicans wouldn't be working so hard in so many places to stop "the wrong people" from doing it."
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. So sick and tired of hearing the "it doesn't matter" line of horseshit from purists--who themselves seemed to have turned a blind eye to the the gutting of the VRA.
This is an election where the vote is basically for, or against, evil.
Those who side with Trump are wittingly, or unwittingly, siding with evil.
Here is an accepted definition of Evil: profoundly immoral and malevolent... harmful; injurious
Trump IS evil. By almost any definition. He admitted to sex crimes. He is greedy. He is dishonest. He is narcissistic. He is a racist and rose to power on racist birtherism. He lies, he cheats, he hates, he instills and aggravates fear, anger, and resentments. And he employs all of that in service to his self-aggrandizement and power.
And there is more, much more.
The bottom line today is this: A vote against the Party of Trump is a vote against evil.
I hope. I hope. I hope.
That's all I can do now that I've voted and the polls are closed.
I voted for 1 Republican. MA Governor Charlie Baker. A smart, decent, honorable repub. Everything tRump and the majority of the GOP is not.
Thanks for all the comments. I don't have much to add to most of them -- and of course I'm following the results.
So far it looks like pretty much what was expected. Republicans hold the Senate with a slightly-expanded majority (with a map that massively favored them). Democrats will probably take the House, and control of several states. The passage of voting rights for ex-felons in Florida is a big deal. Florida is always so close to 50-50, adding over a million potential voters will have an impact.
But, Rational, I stand by what I said in paragraph 2. These days, a genuinely decent and honorable person could not remain a Republican; whoever does remain one cannot be those things.
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