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It is that time to, once again, exercise the right that millions of people have died to protect. Your right to vote. Cracked.com has a great piece on voting myths that many people believe. I strongly suggest you give it a gander. While funny as hell it is also serves as a clear reminder of why every vote counts. Even yours Skippy. Look, I don’t care if you want to see the two party system go down the crapper and replace it with a true democracy, like India’s, with 100 warring mini-factions each out for its own selfish ideals to the detriment of the masses. I don’t care if you want a country skewed so far to the right, like North Korea, that it would make Nazi Germany look like a liberal playground. I don’t care if you think that government should be an orderly layer of successions, like China, so the masses are spared any drama. There is a simple reason that I don’t care.
I don’t care because America gives each and every one of us a chance to be heard. It does that by allowing us regular access to voting booths. If you truly believe the Green Party is America’s best hope for the future, then go and make your belief known. If you think that we can only attain salvation through Libertarianism, there is a voting booth for you too.
I can happily disagree with all of you without suppressing your rights.
Your vote gives you an inalienable right, it gives you the right to speak to the issues you deem important. It does not give you the right to call other people foul names. I feel the need to highlight that last part. It tends to get forgotten.
Back on November 1, 2010, the day before the election that year, I wrote about why you should vote. Since not much has changed since then I will repost that blog here again today.
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I don’t care if you’re a Republicrat or a Demican. I don’t care if your idea of a Tea Party involves Sarah Palin and Moose antlers or the cast of La Cage Aux Folles and a pot of Earl Grey. I don’t care if your party is colored Green, Purple or Mauve. I don’t care if you’re Right Wing, Left Wing or the flipping bird in the middle.
What I do care about, and what I hope you care about, is the fact that this country’s crying out for some sanity. There are very serious issues to consider and, if you want to make your voice heard on them, you must vote. Not scream on talk radio, not wave inflammatory signs, just vote.
Each vote cast is akin to a voice in a choir. While individually they may not garner attention, once fully throated they become a sound that can not be denied. You must add your voice to that choir.
I can remind you that Thomas Jefferson is credited with saying “The government you elect is government you deserve.”
I can remind you that H.L. Mencken said basically the same thing, but possibly better, “People deserve the government they get, and they deserve to get it good and hard.”
I can remind you that Winston Churchill once said “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”
I can remind you of lots of stuff.
Despite what you may have heard on some television or radio shows, we still live in a democracy. That means you still have a legal right in saying how our government is formed and a clear voice is saying what actions it should take.
Voting should never be seen as some burdensome duty or musty obligation. It is your right and it is a right that was bought and paid for with the blood of millions of dead Americans over the years. That is a very high price to pay for you to sit around naked in a beanbag eating cheese puffs. The least you could do is show that you were worthy of the cost.
So, get off your dead ass and vote. Tomorrow is the last day you can and the polling places are easy enough to find.
I’m Bill McCormick and I approve this message.
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Yes, I know, technically we live in a democratic republic, not a democracy. I just don’t think now is the time to parse the differences for folks.
Start A Fight – The Ex-Senators from Mark Rizzo
Listen to Bill McCormick on WBIG (FOX! Sports) every Friday around 9:10 AM.