Defying the Republican Party

On my facebook timeline, election postings are really heating up!  As we near the National Conventions for both parties, the country is shifting into election mode and this will be one of (if not THE) most important election of my lifetime.  We're at a crucial point in this country and we must decide what direction we want to go in as a nation and a people.  We have some pretty important choices to make.  The SCOTUS handed us a real game changer in the form of it's Citizen's United decision.  For the first time, we'll be seeing the full impact of that ruling, and I'm willing to wager it isn't going to be pretty.  Our political process was put up for sale to the highest bidder.  It's a widely known fact that the candidate who spends the most money usually wins the election.  Now anyone can have a ginormous super-pac and can contribute any amount of money they please and they can do it in a completely anonymous fashion.  It doesn't bode well for We The People, when that also means, We the Corporations as well.

   Now more than ever it matters if you vote.  I know it's easy to feel like your vote doesn't count; you're just one person, after all.  How much can one vote matter?  The answer is simple...it matters a LOT!  

   If your vote didn't matter, there wouldn't be a massive republican sponsored movement to disenfranchise voters and make it as difficult as possible to cast a ballot.  Their rallying cry is "VOTER FRAUD".  The republican party is hell bent on stopping this insidious threat to democracy.  They're willing to spend millions of dollars to eradicate the scourge of voter fraud in every state in the union (at least every republican held state where they can get away with it).  This abomination that has the republicans so up in arms amounts to about 13 cases of verifiable, prosecutable, bona-fide voter fraud nation-wide.  Yep, you read that right.  Thirteen cases...in the entire country...everywhere...from sea to glorious shining sea.  Thirteen cases.  Seems like voter fraud is a bit of a (if I may borrow from the vererable Mr. George Lucas), Phantom Menace.  

   Soooo, why the mad rush to stop a threat of thirteen fraudulent votes?  Because by instituting strict vote regulations, it will stop a significant percentage of people from casting ballots.  And guess what?  Most of the groups that are likely targets of those shiny new regulations are historically democratic voters.  The guidelines target the elderly, college students and voters of non-European descent.  Immigrants--legal ones who are citizens of this great nation and have the right to participate in their democracy.  All of those people (save for the elderly) typically lean to the left a little bit.  And republicans don't like anything that leans left.  So they might lose a few elderly votes.  No big deal, it's collateral damage.

  So your vote does matter.  If it didn't, there wouldn't be such a significant investment to make it as difficult as possible to cast that ballot.  

   Now more than ever, it is crucial that you exercise your right to vote.  With the Citizens United decision making corporations people too, we're even more at risk than ever before of becoming a nation of the money, for the money and by the money.  Public office should not be sold to the highest bidder, but campaign finance reform is a blog for another day.  Contact your local board of elections, head to the DMV or go on-line and find out how to register to vote, then register.  Find out where your polling place is and then come November, head out and cast a ballot.  You'll feel empowered--and you'll preserve your right to bitch about the direction our country is heading!!

Until next time...and there will be a next time....