You didn’t vote to teach the DNC a lesson?

I read a conversation on Facebook between numerous people about why they didn’t vote: They all crowed and shared humor over how they’d shown the DNC it couldn’t take their votes for granted. This is my response:

You didn’t vote? You deny your portion of culpability for this outcome, and tell yourself, “What difference does it make?” You didn’t vote to show the DNC they couldn’t take your vote for granted? This wasn’t some existential exercise in democracy. This was protecting this nation and the entire free world from a fascist despot. Yeah, you showed the DNC.

You didn’t vote?  Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST African Americans who’ll now have to live with stop-and-frisk profiling. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST Muslim Americans who will now be on a database. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST immigrants. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST the environment, against children like those of Flint Michigan. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST women and girls who’s futures are now in the hands of a self-proclaimed sexual predator. Yep, you showed the DNC. 

You didn’t vote? Well, then, with your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my keeping my cancer doctors and my heart doctors. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my brilliant, funny, Christian son with a heart for charitable activism – who also happens to be Iranian-American because he’s the son of an Iranian-American who was himself a political refugee thirty years ago. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my brilliant son’s future – he’s entering DukeTIP this year, but that won’t matter because the DOE is on the chopping block and college will be priced so far out of his reach that it’s become a fantasy. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST every single person in this country at risk from a Trump presidency. With your non-vote, you voted FOR Trump. Sure, that showed the DNC.

Do you have children? Or want children? Your non-vote just voted AGAINST their future. You sit comfortably wreathed in your self-entitled apathy and convince yourself your angry complaisance is justified. You choose to acquiesce to all the Hate that Trump promises. Oh yeah… you showed the DNC!

YOU have driven a nail in my coffin. YOU have left my twelve year old son to watch his mother die. YOU have left my twelve year old son – already being called ISIS and terrorist, and threatened that Trump will send him to the gas chambers – to live in fear. YOU have left my twelve year old son to fear for his father every time he walks out the door. YOU have left my twelve year old son to fear the America he was born into. You really showed the DNC.

“What difference does it make?” Well, from a dead woman walking, it’s the difference between life and death. 

Yeah. You showed us all. 

It Is NOT Okay To Sit Out The Election

I’ve seen commentary and even articles and blogs now telling people it’s okay NOT to vote. In case you missed it, the people who want you NOT to vote are the people with whom you disagree. These are the same people who are always telling us not to discuss politics or social issues or religion or really anything in life that matters. Why do they tell us not to discuss those things? Why do they tell us to just laugh it off and get on with life when we are at risk over those issues? Why do they want us to be silent? These are the people who tell us it’s just the way life is. We’re supposed to just laugh it off… carry on… let it go… deal with it. But, we’re not supposed to actually CHALLENGE it. Think about that: Precisely who is served by our just accepting the way things are? 

IT IS NOT OKAY TO SIT OUT THE ELECTION. 

Your vote is your voice. Anyone who tells you it is okay NOT to vote is telling you to sit down and shut up. They are trying to silence your voice. The apathetic or complaisant voter sitting out elections is how the extremists on both sides have been able to cripple our government. The extreme partisanship of our current government is directly the fault of those voters who choose NOT to vote.

Look, that’s been me on midterm elections for all my voting life. That’s been me for all those local elections and referendums. That’s been me for a couple of the POTUS elections. I’ve been a middle-of-the-road independent voter for decades – I was always one of those moderates we keep hearing about. When I’ve voted, I’ve voted for a combination of Democrat and Republican candidates. Yes, I’ve been apathetic about elections, just like you. 

I was wrong. 

Voters like me and you and every other moderate should have been the voices of reason and compromise. We sat back and let the extremes from both sides push their uncompromising agendas with a go-for-broke, all-or-nothing fervor that resulted in all out obstruction for no other reason except partisan obstruction, government shutdowns, and ultimately, TRUMP. 

You were wrong.

Yes… Trump is my fault. Trump is your fault. Every apathetic voter in America is more at fault for the rise of Trump than the GOP, the Alt-Right, or the media. We sat back and let our America become a place that gave rise to Trump. 

We were wrong.

VOTE. 

It is our citizen duty to vote. Democracy is ours to preserve – or to let slip away. 

Research the candidates and make an informed choice. Vote every single time there’s an election. Don’t be told who to vote – LEARN for yourself who to vote for. Vote for the candidates whose actual documented record meets with your approval. Don’t let rhetoric form your choice or make you think your vote doesn’t count. VOTE as if the future depends on it. But, remember, you’re not really voting for yourself – you are voting for your children… for women and girls… for minorities… for veterans… for the disabled… for the working poor… for the middle class… for all the average workaday Americans. Or, you vote against them by not voting because you allow the extreme right and the extreme left to silence YOU. Vote because your vote is your voice – don’t let anyone silence you. 

VOTE.

VOTE like your child’s life depends upon it – BECAUSE IT DOES!

“Apathy is acquiescence is compliance is approval.” ~MomzillaNC

“Hands and hearts and minds and voices committed to working for tolerance, peace and social justice everywhere, always.” ~MomzillaNC