IF ONLY

Comments

[Jay Bird]

IN PRACTICAL TERMS YOU CAN TAKE TO THE BANK:

"A vote for a Republican in any House race on Nov 8 is a vote for Marjorie Taylor Greene on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees and for Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.

It’s also a vote to make abortion illegal nationwide even in cases of rape or incest."
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1582324303089238016

[Jay Bird]

GOOD NEWS for those "turned off by politics": If Republicans predominate, they won't have to think about voting anymore!

Choices today are clear:
Republicans try to win at any cost--even at the expense of your daily quality of life.
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1581542962139664384

Democrats show up, work to pass bills to lower drug costs, increase health care coverage, improve infrastructure.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/new-footage-nancy-pelosis-efforts-jan-6-matters-rcna52347

THESE NEXT FEW ELECTIONS will determine whether voting is even a thing in the United States in the near future, women and others' civil rights, etc.

[Carl May]

The two-party "system" is a greater threat to true democracy than the current Republican fiasco. It controls the thinking of most Americans, channeling them into processes that are corrupt in many of the same ways on both sides. Of course, one votes at this moment against election deniers, especially for any governmental position that has a direct hand in the conduct of elections and the handling of results. And one votes against the "go along to get along" candidates who have been enablers of bad people. But acceptance of binary thinking that it must be one or the other of two political parties ends up with ever-narrowing political choices due to the same kinds of corruption that dominate both of the major political parties--what is called the "one-party two-party system."

During political campaigns both parties (and the vast majority of their candidates) accept big-money campaign contributions from special interests, both parties (with a wink to their "separate" status) accept the presence of big-money PACs that help them to narrow and dominate the "narrative" in the media, both parties gang up on and usually marginalize or destroy any party candidates who don't obediently follow the dominant party line, both parties gerrymander like crazy (all the while accusing the opposing party of unfair drawing of district lines where the other party controls districting). Both parties sensationalize short-term hot-topic issues and the negative personal characteristics of opposing candidates during campaigns while relegating current major matters with long-term effects on all of our lives to noncommittal general statements about how "existential" such things are (if they are addressed at all). And on. And on. And on. No wonder why the percentages of voters who identify as independent or who are turned off by all politics have increased over recent decades, especially among young people.

[Jay Bird]

"Vote the person and the issues, not the political party."

You'd think so, wouldn't you? Used to be, but — no more!

Today's 'Republicans' have been taken over by extremists who, among many other things, DENY the last election was free and fair. For whatever reason, so-called moderate Republicans have been cowed to the point of SAYING NOTHING or stopping this. Today's 'Republicans' support breaking down the democratic process.

A vote for Republicans today is, sadly, a vote to dismantle the American democratic process, to dismantle free and fair elections; it is a vote in support of the actions of those who physically disrupted the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021.

Over half of the GOP running for office are election deniers;
THE OTHERS DO NOT DENY THE DENIERS:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/interactive/2022/election-deniers-running-for-office-elections-2022/?database=true&state=California

A majority of GOP nominees deny or question the 2020 election results. Experts say their dominance in the party poses a threat to the country’s democratic principles and jeopardizes the integrity of future votes.
[gift WaPo article] https://wapo.st/3T4ppI2

[Carl May]

Vote the person and the issues, not the political party. Voting a straight party line only encourages that party to dictate less qualified candidates with questionable records rather than better people for the jobs, and to get away with its various forms of financial and deal-making corruption without challenge. You might have to vote for one party's bad candidate to block another party's worse candidate, but you can do this consciously without giving up your principles and independent decision-making.

[Jay Bird]

This meme glosses over two facts:

1) insurance would be used to rebuild

2) the real enemy to your, your children's, and children's children's freedoms
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/nazi-germany-hitler-democracy-weimar/671605/

Guess which one you can fix when you VOTE BLUE up and down the ticket this November?