In a Huffington Post blog piece, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm asks and then states, "Not Voting? The Kocch Brothers Thank You."
A new USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll found that an estimated 90 million people won't vote this fall. That's more than a quarter of the population of the United States.
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If you're one of those 90 million people, you can certainly choose to reject that right, for whatever reason. You might think you're too busy to vote; or that the partisan fighting makes you nauseous; or maybe you feel your vote doesn't count. But let me tell you: If you're staying at home because you're disgusted by the negative tone of the campaign; or you believe both sides run the same vile, lying, attack ads; or because you're turned off by politics: Congratulations, you are fulfilling someone else's agenda. You are following their plan to the letter.
The right is working very, very hard this election, spending record amounts of money, for the purpose of having you decide not to vote. They are desperate for you to stay home. They are spending money on ads. They are spending money on voter suppression. They are spending money on letting you know they are spending money so that it disgusts you; so that you're turned off by the whole awful spectacle they've created. They have the champagne on ice, ready to pop the cork on election night when you opt out.
Not voting isn't just sitting it out. Not voting is giving in.
A 'no vote' is really a 'yes' vote for Romney, Ryan, Adelson and the Koch brothers.
Just as a 'no vote' is a 'yes' vote for the Republicans, so is a 'protest' vote for a third party candidate. The time has come to move beyond ideological purity -- the stakes are simply too high this time around. Voting for a third party candidate will only drain away votes from the one man, imperfect as he may or may not be, who has a chance of beating this juggernaut from the right.
Think of what the impact of a GOP win would be: on Supreme Court appointments, women's rights, voting rights, Medicare, the poor and disabled, minorities, the middle class, food lunch programs, education, environmental protections, deregulation, religious freedom, labor unions, child labor laws, unemployment, peace or war, and the list goes on and on and on.
Writing for The Nation, Erica Alterman puts it this way:
. . . A Romney victory would likely bring with it a large majority in the House and quite possibly a Republican Senate as well, and hence a tsunami of regressive legislation. As the longtime nonpartisan analysts Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein argue, a Republican victory in November will likely prove a key turning point in modern American history. It will offer Republicans the opportunity, in Mann’s words, to put “in place a radical view of policy that goes well beyond anything Republicans have proposed in the past,” one that has moved so far rightward that “no Republican president in the modern era would have felt comfortable being a part of [it].” What’s more, they will likely succeed owing not only to Romney’s eagerness to blow with whatever winds may be buffeting him, but also, as Mann and Ornstein put it, to his party’s “demonstrated willingness to bend, break, or change legislative rules and customs that have stood in the way of radical change in the past.”- - - - - - -
The result, should Romney become president, will be a mixture of policies that favor the superwealthy, punish the poor and middle class, restrict the rights of average Americans, and—I say this without hyperbole—cause a degree of almost unimaginable and unprecedented chaos in virtually every area of American public life. (emphasis mine)Voting for a third party candidate will not only play smack dab into the hands of the 'divide and conquer' game plan of the Republicans, it will most definitely contribute to "unimaginable and unprecedented chaos in virtually every area of American public life." It is a very real possibility that if the Republicans win, it will be our last free election for generations to come, if not forever.
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ReplyDeleteJed Lemon
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/liesmycountrytoldme
Thanks - will try to catch it.
DeleteAfter the fiasco wrought by Nader voters in 2000, you'd think this wouldn't even need saying, but cynics and utopians tend to be dumb and unable to learn.
ReplyDeleteTheir latest defense is that a third-party protest vote does no harm if you live in a deep-red or deep-blue state, since the outcome in your state is known and won't be changed by your deserting the Democrats. That's not really true, though. The size of the popular-vote margin doesn't affect who wins, but it affects the magnitude of the winner's perceived mandate.
I hadn't heard that one. Big groan. Trying to reason with this mindset, however, can be as challenging as trying to reason with the fright-wingers.
DeleteHell Yeah!!!!
ReplyDeleteBoth you and Infidel nailed it. In fact I have reserve a special frustration at Utopian progressives who single-handedly prove the realm of delusional idiots does not exclusively belong to Teabaggers, Bible thumpers, and Beck-types.
Voting for a third party candidate will not only play smack dab into the hands of the 'divide and conquer' game plan of the Republicans...
It would curl my toes to see a Bernie Sanders-like progressive become president which would skin the corporations, bring troops home and cut defense, and start programs to rebuild this country but right now no one like that has a chance of being elected. Progressives have just as much a Messiah complex as conservatives but are far less organized and conversely far more likely to run off on a tangent and pout if heaven and earth is not moved for their pet cause.
If Android Mittens and that Ayn Rand monster loving Ryan are elected they will wrap up the work started by Reagan and Bushes to turn this country into a corporate-run oligarchy.
"Progressives have just as much a Messiah complex as conservatives . . ." Bingo. If they cared as much for "the people" as they claim, they'd be willing to do what's best for "the people" as a whole instead of just clinging to their naive ideological purity. Selfish and foolish. There's nothing wrong with being progressive but a little pragmatism needs to be thrown into the mix.
DeleteWhere I live (suburban Atlanta) is very Republican. So much so that people say the most horrible, bigoted, right-wing stuff as part of a normal conversation, and just assume that everyone hearing agrees. It is breathtaking sometimes.
ReplyDeleteSo I have little to no hope that Georgia will go blue.
Tennessee is the same way but that's all the more reason to vote -- and to volunteer for OFA.
DeleteWhat an excellent post, with comments to match.
ReplyDeleteI've butted heads online with two basically good people I fear may give in to letting "perfect" be the enemy of the good. They're put out about Obama bringing lobbyists into his administration. They're even more put out about what they see as his dawdling at getting our troops out of the Mideast wars and downright livid about his signing the Patriot Act. They seem to believe a vote for a third-party candidate or no vote at all will send some kind of message. In fact, it will send exactly the message you suggest, L.P. It will tell Romney and Ryan their lying and making the race ugly is working. It will tell the Kochs, Adelson and the rest of the GOP's sugar daddies their "investment" is sure to pay off if they just keep stoking right-wing extremists' campaigns with money.
Bad enough if all should be lost with everyone who's not gullible and misinformed or a selfish jerk, or a racist resenter, voting for Obama and Democrats. The tragedy will be more complete and the damage more long lasting if defeat comes at the hands of people who knew better, but for reasons of personal pique, spite, laziness or sheer stupidity, refused to lift a hand to prevent the tragedy and damage.
Well, there's not much, if anything, I can add to that, S.W. Wow! You just really have to wonder how supposedly good and mostly intelligent people can be so shortsighted. Talk about shooting yourself - and everyone else - in the feet. It's just all so sad and they're as tone deaf as the extremists on the right.
DeleteThis is the point I keep trying to make when I write about political concerns, and especially this election. It came to pass in a nearby County during the Primary election, but will write about that soon. Also, of concern is writing in such a manner that those who don't agree, or are inclined to not vote, will read what I write, to maybe...just maybe...tweak their thinking. Perhaps it's much easier to write or speak by "preaching to the crowd" but does it accomplish the desired effect is what I've found myself wondering -- 'cause so many I know who don't agree won't even bother paying attention?
ReplyDelete"Preaching to the choir" is a concern to most bloggers I think. The fright-wingers only visit sites like Breitbart and Red State. The Leftbaggers, in turn, only gravitate toward sites that support their views. Both extremes are guilty of tunnel vision and ideological purity to such an extent that it blinds them to facts and pragmatism. They are, for all intents and purposes, brain dead - just like religious extremists. I don't think these people are reachable.
DeleteBetween the two ideological extremes, however, are the vast number of people who despite tilting right or left philosophically are interested in facts and reason. They may not totally agree with you or me but are willing to at least think about it. These are the people we should be trying to reach. If in the process we change a few minds, that's all for the better. If we only succeed in giving like minded souls a few thoughts and arguments they can use in their own writings and debates, that's not a bad thing either.
The worse thing we can do is give up and shut up, as discouraging as it may get sometimes.
Wow. Never heard of a Leftbagger before; what a term. And I guess with my primary source of news being NPR, and my secondary source being FOX/WSJ AM news, I am way too impure for my side.
Delete