Vote like your life depends on it!

Vote. Vote like your life depends on it. It matters greatly!

Crime

Be smart, too. Senators and Representatives have almost nothing to do with crime. (When we talk about crime, we mean property crimes and violent crimes?) Criminal laws exist at the state level, but for a limited number of crimes which the United States Code defines. Want to say something about crime? Elections for sheriff matter a bit, as do those elections for District or County Attorney. Truth be told, though, crime occurs for a slew of reasons that have nothing  to do with elected officials at any level. Want to reduce crime? Improve economic conditions and support services directed to those who suffer from mental illness and those who have substance abuse issues.

The Economy and Our Environment

Upset about the economy and inflation? Those dollars we all got during the late Trump and early Biden years weren’t free. They got us through a hard patch and we have lots more people earning living wages. For sure, stuff costs more (and wages are higher, which rarely gets mentioned.) And in many other countries stuff costs more and those who live there did not benefit from any governmental largesse.

Ds suck at messaging. The Inflation Reduction Act was all about investing in a future that involves trying to save our planet. Real are the opportunities to make fortunes off reducing climate change global warning. The IRA furthers those chances, along with saving our planet and improving our quality of life.

Freedom

One more thing. We see, now, an effect associated with letting the current R Party take control. Roe v. Wade was not a poorly written opinion, and saying so does not make it so. The Court adopted it by a 7-2 margin. A D (White) and and R (Rehnquist) appointee wrote dissents, and Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon appointed five of seven Justices who wrote / joined in the majority opinion.)

We got to where we ended up, today, because of an active and mostly unchallenged movement, driven by opportunities to raise funds for issues and candidate spending. And a truly foul bunch of modern-day R politicians and judges.

Decisions that survive for 50 years deserve due consideration, and in 2022 Roe did not get its due. For sure, Plessy v. Ferguson survived for only 58 years, before the Supreme Court overruled it in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. But Brown overturned a decision that had at its core Jim Crow and racist thinking. As for Roe, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision is all about the new majority exercising its ability to prevail. Power, plain and simple! (If abortion mattered to R politicians one whit, for real, Rs never would have nominated Herschel Walker for Senator in Georgia.)

The Modern-Day R Party

Let’s wrap up here. A Russian oligarch announced the fact his government had messed with American elections – duh – and will continue to mess with them – double duh. They are not engaged because they think electing Ds will benefit them. They own Former Guy and his fellow travelers, and they want a return on their investment. (Looks like they will get it if the Rs take over the House and cut funding to Ukraine.)

Further, when the husband of the Speaker of the House of Representatives was beaten damn near to death, R politicians joked about the events. They did so because they lack even a wee bit of human decency, or because they think their base – R voters – will punish them for expressing the least bit of concern about a peer’s spouse’s troubles. Or both.

Maybe the R politicians have their base wrong. R voters will punish their candidates for being on the wrong side of the Paul Pelosi attempted murder. And, maybe, just maybe, the painting in my den of the pig between the dock and the lake – flying – is really a photograph.

Finished

I wrote recently about our mess of a political situation. Whatever happens on Tuesday (and in coming days, for we will not know some results for days, and not because of fraud), we will still have a mess on our hands.

We do have a process. We vote, lawfully. Hardworking volunteers and paid staffer support that process. We count votes. Winners win and losers lose. If the count gets close, sometimes we recount and, rarely, the outcome changes. Eff the rest. Eff those who demand something more than regular order. And G-d bless the United States of America. We will get through what I choose to call the Gingrich / Trump years – first guy started much of it, and he often looks like a responsible man, when we compare him to second guy – or not. Nobody promised (us) a rose garden (and they are plenty thorny), and if what we thought we had no longer exists, smart people know where who effed it up.

In the meantime, vote. Vote like your life depends on it!