I've said before and I say again- the responsibility for this sits smack on the shoulders of every single American who says "my vote doesn't matter." It does matter, and putting time and energy into making others votes matter is important.
What was voter turnout in both those elections? 60 some percent. Your vote did count in 2004. If you voted libertarian or Indy that's fine. You made a decision, and you let people know that you didn't like either party. I'm always amazed that the response from people is, "we didn't win, obviously my vote is worthless."
Your vote does matter, and frankly everyone needs to suck it up. Win some, lose some. Big deal. You still keep fighting. That's how the Republicans finally won. They didn't quit when the Democrats beat them for years in elections. They kept pushing, they kept working to get out the vote. The convinced their people that voting matters.
We all get to choose. Woe is me, I don't matter, I'm going to go curl up in little bitty ball. That results promises that nothing happens. Second, you go out and vote. That helps, but is the minimum effort. Three, you find someone running for office and actively work to help get them elected.
Yes you may lose. Then you dust off, and keep fighting. I happen to think these things are worth fighting for. :)
I actually voted for a write-in. Because the candidate I wanted got spindoctored out of the race.
I don't think my vote is worthless because I didn't win. I think my vote is worthless because there was vote tampering, there were underhanded tactics used to keep people from voting who would not have voted for Bush, and because the electoral college can and does screw around with the way the state goes even if the popular vote goes for somebody else.
Half the country who did vote didn't vote for Bush. The victory was by 1%. Because the Republicans went "family values!" "gay marriage!"
The system is hopelessly corrupt, and those operating it are corrupt.
The Republicans didn't work to get the vote. They smeared and lied and did dirty. They didn't convince people voting matters. They used fear and deception. They've used fear and deception since they got Bush the second into office, and still people vote for them [and they use underhanded methods to insure victory].
The President's approval rating is almost lower than Nixon's [lowest ever] and still he got two atrocious bills past.
I had somebody tell me to go door to door the evening before election day and remind people to vote to make sure people turn out to vote. I am black. I am female. And I live in a bad neighborhood in the south. That's just asking for me to get mugged and/or raped. Because the people voted into position right now don't do enough to keep the neighborhood safe either.
You're not convincing me with the snark and derision, and the reality of the life I live continues to cement my belief.
Apologies if it comes across as snark. That's not the intent.
The bill passed because it was piggybacked on other legislation that needed to go through. Like the war or not I think most of us can agree that it's a good thing for the troops in the field to have armor that works. :)
The Republicans excel at getting their voter base out. You can call it what you will. They go to the polls in their key states in higher numbers than the democrats do.
BOTH sides have played dirty over the years. BOTH sides have some serious problems.
My reality includes people who said they refused to vote for Kerry because they thought he was a liar. Okay fine. So they voted for candidates that have no chance of getting elected. Again, that's fine. The decision was made, and the numbers went Bush. I don't have to like it. I didn't like it.
I made the committment to work harder next time. End of story. :)
Honest, no snark intended and apoligies if you feel it was. :)
And as a random find I was reading the Washington Post tonight and found an interesting tidbit on why email is essentially treated by lawmakers as spam.
It was kind of interesting, but not so much since I recall vividly the fun I had of getting ahold of my congressman post 9/11 to protest...darn what was I protesting...ah well, it was important at the time. He had no email, and it took 4 calls to get ahold of anyone since his DC office had been locked out due to anthrax.
Those were the days...*sniffle*
Bet congress starts paying more attention to email and IM after the Foley mess. Idiot.
As a reminder- Lincoln suspended habeas. We all survived that. :) This isn't good- but it's far from perminent. We have a long ways to go before it makes it that far.
Lincoln suspended habeas, and I think Wilson did as well (or came pretty close). OTOH, those were during fairly well-defined wars, with enemies that one could expect to come to terms with at some point, ending the war (in victory or defeat). Our current "war" is against smoke and shadows, against no single enemy who can ever be defeated or treated with.
I totally agree. Wilson never did- but if you look at the domestic history of the US during WWI, the suspension of civil liberties is a heck of a good bit scarrier. Check out John Berry's history of the 1918 flu epidemic.
The enemy is less clearly defined, and that's honestly why this isn't going to stand the test long term. McCain is a strong candidate for president and there's no way he leaves this intact if he's elected. Not after what he went through in Vietnam. The thing about the wording in this bill is that it's still overly vauge and SHOULD trigger even a conservative court to tilt to dump it. It will take about 2 years to work through- coincidentally that would hit the next presidential election.
I'll note that the ammendment to the bill (the terrorism bits) actually just missed getting tossed back to committee. The hang up on it was the other provisions NEEDED to get passed before congress went out of session.
Blair says he's leaving in the summer- he does and we have a WORLD of hurt in terms of trying to keep the current situation in place. Contrary to the opinion of elected leaders we can't do this alone.
Our current enemy is one we are ignoring. Hello? Where's Bin Laden again? Iraq? Noooooooooo. But, like it or not- we just pull out...we got an even bigger mess. Rock, meet hard place.
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We do make an impact.
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And everyone who's written their congressman only to get silence in response.
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Your vote does matter, and frankly everyone needs to suck it up. Win some, lose some. Big deal. You still keep fighting. That's how the Republicans finally won. They didn't quit when the Democrats beat them for years in elections. They kept pushing, they kept working to get out the vote. The convinced their people that voting matters.
We all get to choose. Woe is me, I don't matter, I'm going to go curl up in little bitty ball. That results promises that nothing happens. Second, you go out and vote. That helps, but is the minimum effort. Three, you find someone running for office and actively work to help get them elected.
Yes you may lose. Then you dust off, and keep fighting. I happen to think these things are worth fighting for. :)
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I don't think my vote is worthless because I didn't win. I think my vote is worthless because there was vote tampering, there were underhanded tactics used to keep people from voting who would not have voted for Bush, and because the electoral college can and does screw around with the way the state goes even if the popular vote goes for somebody else.
Half the country who did vote didn't vote for Bush. The victory was by 1%. Because the Republicans went "family values!" "gay marriage!"
The system is hopelessly corrupt, and those operating it are corrupt.
The Republicans didn't work to get the vote. They smeared and lied and did dirty. They didn't convince people voting matters. They used fear and deception. They've used fear and deception since they got Bush the second into office, and still people vote for them [and they use underhanded methods to insure victory].
The President's approval rating is almost lower than Nixon's [lowest ever] and still he got two atrocious bills past.
I had somebody tell me to go door to door the evening before election day and remind people to vote to make sure people turn out to vote. I am black. I am female. And I live in a bad neighborhood in the south. That's just asking for me to get mugged and/or raped. Because the people voted into position right now don't do enough to keep the neighborhood safe either.
You're not convincing me with the snark and derision, and the reality of the life I live continues to cement my belief.
From:
no subject
The bill passed because it was piggybacked on other legislation that needed to go through. Like the war or not I think most of us can agree that it's a good thing for the troops in the field to have armor that works. :)
The Republicans excel at getting their voter base out. You can call it what you will. They go to the polls in their key states in higher numbers than the democrats do.
BOTH sides have played dirty over the years. BOTH sides have some serious problems.
My reality includes people who said they refused to vote for Kerry because they thought he was a liar. Okay fine. So they voted for candidates that have no chance of getting elected. Again, that's fine. The decision was made, and the numbers went Bush. I don't have to like it. I didn't like it.
I made the committment to work harder next time. End of story. :)
Honest, no snark intended and apoligies if you feel it was. :)
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Usually people just slam me harder for pointing out they're being snarky.
Apology accepted and very respectfully appreciated.
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It was kind of interesting, but not so much since I recall vividly the fun I had of getting ahold of my congressman post 9/11 to protest...darn what was I protesting...ah well, it was important at the time. He had no email, and it took 4 calls to get ahold of anyone since his DC office had been locked out due to anthrax.
Those were the days...*sniffle*
Bet congress starts paying more attention to email and IM after the Foley mess. Idiot.
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Not that this is good in the short term. :/
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The enemy is less clearly defined, and that's honestly why this isn't going to stand the test long term. McCain is a strong candidate for president and there's no way he leaves this intact if he's elected. Not after what he went through in Vietnam. The thing about the wording in this bill is that it's still overly vauge and SHOULD trigger even a conservative court to tilt to dump it. It will take about 2 years to work through- coincidentally that would hit the next presidential election.
I'll note that the ammendment to the bill (the terrorism bits) actually just missed getting tossed back to committee. The hang up on it was the other provisions NEEDED to get passed before congress went out of session.
Blair says he's leaving in the summer- he does and we have a WORLD of hurt in terms of trying to keep the current situation in place. Contrary to the opinion of elected leaders we can't do this alone.
Our current enemy is one we are ignoring. Hello? Where's Bin Laden again? Iraq? Noooooooooo. But, like it or not- we just pull out...we got an even bigger mess. Rock, meet hard place.
I'm moving to Fiji...
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