I'm normally a fairly positive person, and God knows I hate to regurgitate anything that Nancy Reagan said, but here it is:
Just Say No!
It's been a difficult time for progressives. The house and senate and presidency have been firmly controlled by the Republicans. Corruption in Washington has reached levels that are incomprehensible to me. There's a new story every day, so it seems. We've become embroiled in a war that most of the country does not support, and the war has killed as many as 650,000 people in a foreign country. We made up a reason for invading the country, and continue to make up excuses for our war, our conduct, our history of torture (and saying that it's justified).
The Republican party is proudly pointing to the "economic progress" of the country. There's been plenty of economic progress for the people with money, for the people with investments, for the friends of the Republicans. But damn little for any of the rest of us. For most of the country. For the poor, for the middle class, for the people we used to think were the backbone of America. They give us answers like fences, Health Savings Accounts (if you can't afford to take your kids to the doctor, it's a cinch you can't afford those).
Our government wants ever-increasing amounts of money to keep us "safe" from a "war on terror" that seems only to be a war if you live in Washington. For the rest of it it's a horror we're trying to get past - I was as frightened on 9/11 as anyone - but most of us want to get on with our lives and start living again. Meantime, we cut our citizens rights, arrest people, send them to foreign countries to be "interrogated". Sometimes they die. But it's all a secret - we can't be trusted to know what's going on. This is America in 2006. God help us if it is still America in 2008.
In 2000, many of my friends decided not to vote, or voted for Ralph Nader because they didn't think that it made any difference whether we had a Republican or Democrat in the White House. Guess it did matter, huh?
Throw the scum out. Vote Democratic. I don't care if you disagree with some of the plans and policies of the Democratic candidates. They can't be as bad as what we have now. We need massive change in the direction that the country is going. That will only come one way. Speak up. Vote. Talk to your friends, Democrats, Republicans, Greens - Ask them if their life has improved in the last six years. Tell them yours hasn't. Tell them you're mad.
Just Say No!
These same people in Wisconsin are asking us to decide on a lot of things. Does health care matter? Do we care that we've made it so convenient to dump out-of-state waste here that we're now a magnet for the Midwest's trash? Are we really willing to let our government collapse under an ever-growing array of demands to cut taxes and services? Are we so afraid that we're willing to change our state constitution to refuse rights to some of our citizens? Do we need to bring in a death penalty that we've done just fine without? Should we vote for two amendments to change the way we've conducted our lives in Wisconsin, thereby caving in to fear and letting it case discrimination and the possible death of innocent people?
Stop the tide.
Just Say No!
It's just two days till the elections. If you've been reading here, if you've been reading much of anything, you're probably feeling like me. We need to make it stop. We need to speak up, we need to vote. We need a change while we still have a country left to love. Vote against Republican corruption. Vote against the two state-wide referenda.
Just Say No!