Holding My Nose and Voting
We are facing a critical election this year. We have a clear choice between Democracy and Nazi/Fascism. I don't need to explain which side is which; only painfully brain-dead MAGAts cannot figure that one out, and we know who they will vote for.
My Father fought for this country, and so did I. It breaks my heart to see how close the American people are to willingly handing over power to the American Nazis, formerly known as the Republican party. I am not enthralled with the Democratic party either because they lack a clear opposition to the Nazis in the GOP. The Republicans have no moral compass, while the Democrats have one that doesn't work as it should.
What type of system rewards a 34-time convicted felon by letting him get this close to power? Those felonies involved corrupt campaign practices in the past. That fact alone demonstrated the absurdity of our system and how it has collapsed into entropy and chaos. The numbness of people who support that candidate and claim that the entire justice system is corrupt represents a clear and present danger to our nation as a whole, not just the electoral system.
Why should we sit back and placidly allow our rights to be taken from us based on our Religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other ridiculous reason? That is not the basis for Democracy; it is the cornerstone of tyranny and authoritarianism. Women are the most obvious target of this approach right now. If the republican Nazis are elected to power, women will lose even more rights than they already have. I am a strong supporter of women's rights. I thought that term faded after the 1970s, but here we are, again, using it to protect the rights women gained in society. If things continue unchecked, women will be reduced to being nothing more than baby factories.
Why should we allow theocrats and politicians to determine whose life is more valuable and whose is not worth much? Thoecrarts should have no official standing in our Democracy. They should be treated as individuals and subject to the law like everyone else. LGBTQIA+ Americans have the same rights, in theory, as everyone else, but the Republican Nazis want to take those rights away. That is not the America I grew up in. That is evil and inhuman.
Why should the USA continue to support a regime in Israel that is committing genocide? Yes, I said it out loud against the Palestinians. I am sick and tired of the USA always having to back Israel after they get into trouble because they and their neighbors cannot coexist due to Religion and centuries of hostility. They should wear big boy pants and work with neighbors to solve their problems. I am not an isolationist, but Israel is playing us, who use Religion to influence Americans about the situation that they created for themselves.
I majored in Political Science in college, so I know more about elections and the political process. I have spoken out for years about the dangerous direction that this country is taking. Still, because the blinders of Religion are put in place, people refuse to see the danger because they naively believe that it won't affect them. Marx was wrong about so much, but when he called Religion "the opiate of the masses," he was 100 percent right. Religion is a tool used for control and the abdication of personal responsibility under the guise of some fucked-up fairy tale. Our Founding Fathers established a separation between Religion and the state that has eroded and is now scoffed at by those who are so easily led by charlatans and false prophets who only want money and power.
I understand why people are disillusioned with the election. You cannot put enough lipstick on these two pigs to make them attractive. The American people deserve better choices, but unfortunately, we are stuck with these two. The system works as designed. It presents us with options that no sane person should make given any influence in the process. Then, we are lectured about our responsibility as citizens to elect one of these lipstick-wearing pigs instead of a more rational and capable candidate because those people are eliminated and prevented from being serious candidates under the existing system.
It is emotionally draining to go through endless campaign cycles. I believe that this is another deliberate attempt to numb people into accepting whatever garbage the system presents us with. I cannot fathom the enthusiasm for either candidate. Although one is preferable, that isn't a ringing endorsement on my part. I believe that morally we have to act with the crap that we have until we can force something better to emerge in the future.
This is the chronic American complaint about our elections. We are constantly forced to choose between the candidates who can collect the most in bribes or campaign contributions, and they seldom resemble everyday Americans. Too many Americans have no faith left in the process, and that is a tragedy we created for ourselves by not letting our voices be heard over the defining sound of money.
Money is the primary influence in our elections, followed closely by the media because they always chase the money more than the truth. We lack a spectrum of political opinions and options in this country. The system is rigged to protect the two-party system from any competition, and it works as far as that is concerned.
I know I get it. Why vote when I don't like either candidate? Well, my friend, one of those candidates is intent on destroying our democratic republic, and the other is Joe Biden. I wish there were another option besides Biden, but that ship has sailed. We have to choose the lesser of two evils once again. Remember that the fate of Democracy is on the agenda this year more than ever before.
The symbolism of holding one's nose to vote needs no definition. Both candidates are undesirable, but we have to at least vote for the less undesirable one in November, the one who isn't a republican Nazi. Again, the process is broken when these are the two candidates from whom we must choose. We have to do better so we no longer must worry as much about holding our noses when we vote.
Our system is slowly eroding. Money and a lack of real choices are destroying what we set out to do over 225 years ago. The Constitution did not mention political parties, political primaries, or the endless campaign cycles that we must endure, to the point where we wish it would just stop so we could relax. This barrage of negativity from the media and paid political advertisements poisons the atmosphere surrounding a crucial aspect of our Democracy.
I have always advocated for publicly financed campaigns, in which each side gets the same amount of money and advertisement time to make their point. I also support a short campaign season, say one month. If a candidate or political party cannot make a convincing point as to why we should vote for them during that time, then they shouldn't be allowed near elected office in the first place. Of course, too much money is being made under the current system to revert and allow those changes to take effect.
There is no beautiful, quick solution to this problem. Nothing will happen until enough people demand change, and the treadmill will keep going round and round. The only thing we can do is to vote to protect the rights we still have. We must also clearly understand why so many people have abandoned the system and refuse to vote. We have to reason with them to see that there is a greater danger of not voting than refusing to vote because they don't like the choices. The defeatist attitude only ensures that the republican Nazis will eventually gain total control, and then everything will be lost. We will never be able to regain the freedom that we so casually surrendered without a fight. There are things worth protecting and fighting for, and the basic premise of this country is one of them. We cannot allow politicians to bastardize this nation's legacy and size power even through legal means when their objective is to clearly destroy what people, including myself, have fought and died for.
We must reach out to those who don't vote and work with them to address their valid concerns and bring them into the process instead of criticizing them because that approach doesn't work. It simply reinforces their opinion that nothing can be fixed.
One possible improvement to the system is ranked-choice voting. Sadly, that works best with multiple political parties; we only have two.