Saturday, August 18, 2018

One Step Forward, Two 'Great' Steps Back


Excellent piece by Samara Lynn in Black Enterprise about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's response to the "Make America Great Again" slogan. I know it took me until 2015 -- when Obergefell v. Hodges was decided favorably, and in a way it would not be just three years later thanks to those of you who thought staying home or voting for Gary Johnson and Jill Stein somehow allowed you to keep your hands “clean” -- before I felt I was an equal member of this country. And already my rights are being rolled back. I hope those of you who opted not to do the right thing can sleep at night, because it sure as hell isn’t getting any easier for anyone who doesn’t fit the straight-white-Christian-man mold of when the U.S. was supposedly so “great” to do so.

4 comments:

John said...

HRC did not lose the popular vote, nor did she lose because of third party voters. She lost because of the electorate, mostly in places she couldn’t be bothered to campaign. I’m happy to remind you of that every time you act like an ass for shaming Americans who vote.

Jihn said...

Electoral not electorate.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

@John: You're wrong -- do you know anything about Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania? -- but you can think what you want so long as you vote D.

barryearle said...

I'm not sure it's worth complaining over the last election. We have to get a bigger turnout for the midterms in order to put a brake on T whose party seems to suddenly believe that ruling by presidential orders is okay but was't so under Obama.

Having said that, Clinton wrote in her book "What Happened": "There was no surge in Republican turnout (in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan). Instead, enough voters switched, stayed home, or went for third parties in the final days to cost me the state." She criticizes the Comey letter announcing opening up the investigation one more time into her emails. She goes on to blast Jill Stein's third party campaign, comparing it to Ralph Nader's early campaign. She also admits that Wisconsin caught her by surprise. A lot of elements were in play.

Unfortunately, but thankfully, we live under a system in which people can vote for whomever they want, including write-ins. Castigating them for exercising their rights buys you nothing. They don't think strategically, particularly Dems. Repubs are more reliable when it comes to sticking with the party line. Dems are notorious for turning a good thing sour.

Bottom line: In the mid-terms, put aside the search for the perfect and get Dems into the Senate and House. So instead of writing periodic criticisms of Dem votes, encourage them to turn out a vote in November even if they don't like the candidate.