Remember, remember

A few things that folks need to remember before they go to the polls, or mail in their ballots this fall. Remember, you are not just voting for a candidate. You are voting for a philosophy, for a paradigm, for a party’s methods, and for its worldview.
You may be angry, as I am, that the party currently in power, the Democrats, haven’t delivered the change that they promised us in 2008. You may be angry that the economy is bad. You may be angry for any number of reasons—and you’ve a right to be. Every single American citizen who’s seen their opportunities erased, their health care costs rise, their wages stagnate, has a right to be angry. But if you’re a Democrat, or a liberal, and that keeps you home, or if you’re an independent, or a moderate Republican (the few that still exist), and you’re considering voting Republican or Tea Party, be forewarned of the consequences of these actions.
Remember, by not voting, or voting Republican, you are endorsing the idea that foreign money should be able to influence our elections. You are endorsing the practice of millionaires and billionaires spending untold amounts of money to sway public opinion in order to elect Republicans (the rich want to keep their tax cuts), and the fact that if they do, those they elect will be in the pockets of multinational corporations, acting in THEIR best interests, rather than representing WE, the American people.
Remember, if you stay home, or vote angrily for the opposition, you are in support of privatizing social security, in support of abolishing Medicare, and in support of ending our country’s guarantee to a free, public education. You are in support of privatizing police and fire departments; in support of the right of corporations to profit, without regulation, on the backs of doctors and their patients. Moreover, you are in support of the health insurance industry’s right to deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, even children. You also support THEIR right to put lifetime caps on YOUR coverage, and to use significant portions of YOUR premiums to deny YOUR claims so that they can continue to pay THEIR CEO’s millions of dollars a year in compensation.
Remember, by electing Republicans, you support tax breaks for the richest 1% of Americans, adding $700 billion to the federal deficit. You support the shipping of jobs overseas, including tax breaks for corporations who do so. Most of all, you support the idea of trickle-down economics: cutting taxes for large, multinational corporations in the hope that this will somehow catalyze job creation for the middle class. You also support cutting regulations designed to protect consumers and the environment, again, in the hope that even though this can end in horrible tragedies (such as the one witnessed this spring and summer with the gulf oil spill), it might sponsor job creation (news flash for those that haven’t noticed: Bush and the Republicans cut taxes and regulations during the first 8 years of this decade, and all we have to show for it is high unemployment, a shrinking middle class, and a ballooning federal deficit).
Remember, by casting your ballot for Republicans, or staying home, you’ll be supporting the denial of civil rights and reproductive rights to women, including the refusal to grant things such as an abortion in cases of rape and/or incest, or when the mother’s life is at risk, and even access to birth control, if your pharmacist happens to morally disagree with it. You’ll be supporting people, such as Rand Paul, who think the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was a big mistake. You’re also in support of the right of government to spy on its citizens, deny them due process of law, insert itself into every aspect of your private life, and judge you based on THEIR religious yardstick.
Remember that joining you at the polls to cast ballots for the Republicans will be all of America’s white racists, homophobes, and extremists. You’ll also be among people who believe that the Bible is the precise word of God, and don’t believe in evolution or climate change. Many of them won’t believe that our president is a U.S. citizen, and some of them will have marched and protested carrying signs of him depicted as a witch doctor, monkey, or terrorist. You’ll be voting in harmony with all of them; or by staying home, tacitly approving of their agenda.
Yes, you are right to be angry about the state of our country. I am too. But I know that if I vote for Republicans this fall, or decide to sit this election out, I am supporting everything stated above. So while your vote is your business, and every U.S. citizen has a right to vote for whom they wish, please remember, remember. Remember to think about the consequences of your decision, because as a voting member of this democracy, every citizen is in some small way responsible for the state of this nation. So remember. Remember.