Autonomy is the price of sloth
After reading all the depressing posts today on my Flist, I wrote up a paragraph, then decided to post it as part of a separate entry on my journal, instead of a comment:
Ok, I don't know what went wrong in Wisconsin. Since I don't live in Wisconsin, I don't know the first thing about Tom Barrett. I don't know if this election upset was a result of money (most probably), or if Barrett wasn't the right person despite the fact that he won the primary. But at least one article I read, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-abramowitz/wisconsin-recall-results_b_1574067.html?ref=politics, shows that, (depressingly) as usual, Republican voters are simply more energized about voting than independent or Democrat voters. "Turnout for the recall election was 91 percent of 2008 turnout in heavily Republican Waukesha County, the largest GOP county in the state, but only 83 percent of 2008 turnout in Milwaukee County, the largest Democratic county in the state." Why did these people stay home?
People, we have to stop being so lackadaisical about our politics! Or our entire government will be out of our hands, and we won't ever get it back.
REGISTER TO VOTE. THEN VOTE. AND VOTE IN THE NEXT ELECTION, AND THE NEXT. DON'T MISS ONE SINGLE DAMN ELECTION FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.
If you don't know who to vote for, it's pretty easy to look up candidates online now, so you can read for yourself what a candidate stands for, on any issue under the sun.
Join a party, even if you don't necessarily like all the people, or like all the platform. I used to be a Republican (I signed up right after Reagan was elected, when the Rs were still reasonably sane, and the plutocrats were just beginning their push), and I thought that it would be easier to get Republicans to change their minds about abortion rights than it would be to get Democrats to be fiscally responsible (which they were not portrayed to be at the time; I now know better).
Get out the left vote. Get out the independent vote. Hell-get out the right vote.
Help people register to vote. Ask people on the right and in the middle what's wrong with their government now, and and show how the right has ignored those problems, and show how the left can help to fix those problems. Talk to people about how our schools used to be funded, and how they are funded now. And our police departments, and our roads, and our social services.
Work with your local Democratic party association. I go to our monthly McPherson County Democrats board meeting every chance I get-which isn't always easy, since it's at 7 on a Tuesday, and half the time I'm on my way home at that time.
Go to your local school board and city council meetings, all the way to the state and national level, if you are close enough. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD.
The more we speak up, the more other like-minded people will be encouraged to speak up. And the more we show up to say NO to the right wing legislators and the plutocrats, the less drastic their attempts will be, as they realize that, like the State BOE officers that got voted out after the "Intelligent Design" fiasco, they too can be thrown out of office.
Ok, I don't know what went wrong in Wisconsin. Since I don't live in Wisconsin, I don't know the first thing about Tom Barrett. I don't know if this election upset was a result of money (most probably), or if Barrett wasn't the right person despite the fact that he won the primary. But at least one article I read, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-abramowitz/wisconsin-recall-results_b_1574067.html?ref=politics, shows that, (depressingly) as usual, Republican voters are simply more energized about voting than independent or Democrat voters. "Turnout for the recall election was 91 percent of 2008 turnout in heavily Republican Waukesha County, the largest GOP county in the state, but only 83 percent of 2008 turnout in Milwaukee County, the largest Democratic county in the state." Why did these people stay home?
People, we have to stop being so lackadaisical about our politics! Or our entire government will be out of our hands, and we won't ever get it back.
REGISTER TO VOTE. THEN VOTE. AND VOTE IN THE NEXT ELECTION, AND THE NEXT. DON'T MISS ONE SINGLE DAMN ELECTION FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.
If you don't know who to vote for, it's pretty easy to look up candidates online now, so you can read for yourself what a candidate stands for, on any issue under the sun.
Join a party, even if you don't necessarily like all the people, or like all the platform. I used to be a Republican (I signed up right after Reagan was elected, when the Rs were still reasonably sane, and the plutocrats were just beginning their push), and I thought that it would be easier to get Republicans to change their minds about abortion rights than it would be to get Democrats to be fiscally responsible (which they were not portrayed to be at the time; I now know better).
Get out the left vote. Get out the independent vote. Hell-get out the right vote.
Help people register to vote. Ask people on the right and in the middle what's wrong with their government now, and and show how the right has ignored those problems, and show how the left can help to fix those problems. Talk to people about how our schools used to be funded, and how they are funded now. And our police departments, and our roads, and our social services.
Work with your local Democratic party association. I go to our monthly McPherson County Democrats board meeting every chance I get-which isn't always easy, since it's at 7 on a Tuesday, and half the time I'm on my way home at that time.
Go to your local school board and city council meetings, all the way to the state and national level, if you are close enough. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD.
The more we speak up, the more other like-minded people will be encouraged to speak up. And the more we show up to say NO to the right wing legislators and the plutocrats, the less drastic their attempts will be, as they realize that, like the State BOE officers that got voted out after the "Intelligent Design" fiasco, they too can be thrown out of office.