Warts and All, Democracy Is Worth the Vote

So, I gathered a few quotes about voting—well, to me they are representative of the importance of voting—certainly, they are not meant to inspire for as Jack London said, “you can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

🇺🇸

Begin by avoiding harm. —Myozen

Much of the time, living in a democracy is like being served a daily dish of clear and present danger. Freedom has never been free. What distinguishes democracy from any kind of autocracy or oligarchy is the integrity of the vote.

Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions the world over, have died for the right to cast a ballot.

The United States has one of the most remarkable and radical documents that has ever been written, a truly brilliant constitution that was sacrosanct until 2016. Its Achilles’ heel, however, has always been voter apathy.

🇺🇸

Change will come. As always, it is just a matter of who determines what that change will be.— Winona LaDuke

In every election, democracy is on the line. That is how the system works. We elect people who go to Washington to represent their constituents and through compromise, hammer out the best deal possible. Well, unless you are a present-day Republican who will do one of two things, either obstruct or not show up at all for the vote, not that the two are mutually exclusive.

As a Floridian, I have the best of both these worlds in my senators: Scott who will only vote for his way and Rubio who just can’t be bothered to show up to vote. Florida is reminiscent of the fall of Rome, with Nero DeSantis fiddling as the state drowns in development. He even wants Mickey Mouse to move, and maybe the mouse will—to Wisconsin, where cheese is renowned.

🇺🇸

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places. —Ernest Hemingway

We just barely survived an insurrection on January 6, 2020. Republican candidates, some of them, are threatening not to accept the 2022 vote if they lose. It sounds like I am picking on Republicans—well, they are broken—they’re not the party of Lincoln or even of George Will. They are oligarchs in search of a country, preferably the most powerful one on the planet.

Liz Cheney is an exception, for me proof that I can be completely against a politician’s point of view but if she has integrity and believes in the rule of law, I know the country will survive as a democracy, although her policies will keep us well supplied with broken places.

Cheney lost her primary—she got pummeled. However, the minute the networks called the race, she went on national television and conceded, saying “this is how it works.” Also, she called her opponent to concede, something her opponent at first denied, but Liz has been at this game a long time and recorded her date-stamped concession voice message.

This current iteration of the Republican Party is all about power and for them, election integrity is a nuisance. Such is the way of autocracy.

🇺🇸

The world will not change until we do. —Jim Wallis.

We have seen the result of one election, 2016, that forever changed the Supreme Court of the United States. Can we survive a SCOTUS that throws aside the rule of law for political beliefs?

In overturning nearly 50 years of legal precedent, SCOTUS reversed the rights of women to make choices about their healthcare, setting up challenges to the right to marry whom you choose and even the right to vote. In an autocracy, legal precedent exists at the whimsy of any autocrat.

🇺🇸

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. —Norman Cousins

I want to see a landslide vote in November for I believe an historic turnout is a landslide victory for America, showcasing its democratic republic principles and its progress so far, warts and all. America the republic, a bit banged up but the Statue of Liberty still stands.

Cast your ballot, Americans, for democracy. Ignore the polls, the pollsters, the parties but especially, the mainstream media (MSM). Turn the tables on them. Create a story that proves them wrong about who we are. Demand election integrity, settle for nothing less.

🇺🇸