An open letter to the American voters
Dear American Voters,
Vote intelligently! Look at the people running – really look at them, pay attention to what they have to say – and don’t be fooled! Then VOTE!
Apparently, a point has been reached in the political discourse in this country where blatant lies and unsubstantiated accusations don’t derail a candidacy. Thanks to the immediacy of the 24 hour news cycle, all they care about is the soundbite…and getting it to the masses.
There are some very serious, very scary things these candidates represent. There is a great deal of repression, discord, and outright warfare being waged by certain politicians on women, homosexuals, Muslims, immigrants and other groups, often in the name of Patriotism or God or some other powerful entity.
People are hearing, nodding their heads, and agreeing that equal pay for women is the reason the economy is a mess; or that gay marriage is eroding the moral fiber of America; or Muslims are all evil and trying to destroy our way of life; or that making billion-dollar-profit-making businesses pay a fair share of the taxes will cut even more jobs – take your pick. Soundbites and blurbs and Tweets and Facebook posts inundate us every day, telling us how awful things are…and how much worse they will become.
Fact checking? Only a few media outlets do this – and they are the ones accused of being “liberal” or “biased” or “fringe” or what-have-you. Nope, the politicians spew their soundbites and bullshit and we hear them, and form our opinions based on what they have said.
My friends – our complacency is going to cost us dearly. They no longer serve us – they serve themselves. They serve their financial backers. They serve the special interests who promise to support them. They blindly serve their political parties and their inane platforms.
Elections are only a couple months away. The choices before us are not very appealing, no matter what office – the House, the Senate or the Presidency. But we have choices…and we cannot be stupid about them. And more than that – we cannot avoid MAKING choices in this election.
Did you know that Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama have been elected by less than 60% of the registered voters in this country? (Follow this link for those statistics). I’m talking about total voter turn-out – less than 60% of the registered voters in this country have bothered to cast a vote in a Presidential election since 1968. It has been 44 years since voter turnout topped 60%.
That means that just over half of the registered voters in this nation decide the course of our nation. In 2008 56.8% of registered voters cast ballots. Think about that a moment. If there are 200 million registered voters, less than 114 million people bothered to go to their polling stations and cast a vote.
Non-presidential election years have yielded less than 40% of registered voters since 1970. LESS THAN HALF of registered voters cast ballots in the off cycles. Does that disturb you as much as it bothers me?
And all that doesn’t even take into account the eligible adults who are not even registered voters. We need to be aware of the fact that the people who are supposed to be leading this nation are in their place due to only slightly more than half of the registered voters casting votes for them.
My fellow American voters – DO YOUR PART! In November, VOTE. Don’t let just slightly more than ½ of the eligible voters decide who gets to lead this country. Don’t let these criminally unqualified, uneducated smooth talkers gain any further traction, and continue to erode decades of progress. Be smart, vote smart, and keep the crazies out of politics.
And if you are eligible, but not registered to vote – GET TO IT! Register to vote. Take part in the one aspect of the democratic process we have even a semblance of control over. REGISTER. VOTE.
We need to stop complaining about the process, and DO something about it. We need to remind these political animals that they are supposed to work for US. Working inside the existing framework, we can do our part and cast our votes.
And when you do cast your vote – VOTE INTELLIGENTLY! Pay attention to what these people running intend, and truly represent. Let’s keep the naysayers, the dividers, the backwards thinking, progress-overturning whack-jobs out of office (I’m looking at you, Michelle Bachman. How does someone who has such back-ass-wards points-of-view manage to hold an office, anyhow? And this is not me offering support to the other party – this is me naming a specific ideologue who’s standing in the political world utterly baffles me.)
Pay attention! Do your part, eligible voters of American, and VOTE. Moreover – VOTE INTELLIGENTLY!
Thank you.
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