I went to vote this morning, before work. On the way into the building, I had to run
the usual gauntlet of people wanting to hand me paper. But there was one guy on the end, who didn’t
have a handout; he had a hand out. It
was one of my district’s state delegates, Sandy Rosenberg. This was a guy I like; I remembered that he
got a high rating from NARAL, so he was all right with me.
He shook my hand and urged me to vote for him and the
Democratic ticket for governor. I
clapped him on the shoulder and said, “You
got it.”
It’s nice to provide positive reinforcement for a politician
once in a while.
Anyway, there wasn’t a big crowd so I essentially walked
into an empty school, but for one police officer, a youngish white guy. He saw me and immediately groaned. I first thought that he noticed my Steelers
jacket and was lamenting the ass-whippin’ they laid on the Ratbirds Sunday
night. But since my jacket was black,
with a black logo, I didn’t see how he could have seen it, from as far away
from as he was.
Then he called out, “I
haaaaate that hat!”
I forgot I was wearing a Penguins hat. Not one to let a moment go, I said, “Wow, I didn’t think there was anyone else in
this town that cared about hockey.”
He replied, “I’m a
huge Flyers fan!”
This time it was my turn
to groan. Then I said, “I didn’t know they let Flyers fans have
guns!”
Talk about tempting police brutality…
He said, “Man, I HATE
the Penguins, but I sure like playing there.”
I wasn’t sure how to take that. Sure, he could be complimenting the Pens’
exquisite arena, but more likely, he was talking about the Flyers’ outstanding
record (9-2-1) when playing there. But
not wanting to inflame an armed Flyers fan, I wished him well and went on my
way to the voting booth.
I plan on watching the Pens tonight and then turning on CNN
to watch the election returns. I probably
ought to pour myself a nice stiff drink too, because it sure doesn’t look good
for my team. I’ll be amazed if the
Democrats manage to retain control of the Senate.
Sure, a lot of predictions went awry in 2012, but things
were different. Despite the fuck-ton of
money spent, it was a Presidential election, so turnout was high.
The GOP has had a couple more years of Citizens United under
their belts, so the money is spewing forth from the Koch brothers and other anonymous
One Percenters.
More importantly, they’ve laid the groundwork to keep
Democratic turnout low. First, they got
major portions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 repealed, (by the
Republican-appointed justices), which opens the door wide for red states to
enact all the parlor tricks there were prohibited from doing in the past, to
deter seniors, minorities and young people from voting.
If Democrats suggested any of these voter ID requirements to
be presented prior to buying a gun,
there would be right-wing riots in the streets.
Because in America, the right to a lethal weapon supersedes the right to
vote!
Between the voter suppression tactics and the natural dip in
voter enthusiasm in a mid-term election, they’ve stacked the deck for
themselves quite nicely. And the barrage
of campaign ads are hard at work trying to convince people that now that we’re
out of the Great Recession, it’s time to elect people espousing the same
policies that caused it in the first place, because, well, Ebola. And Benghazi.
Socialism!
Anyway, we’ll see what happens on the other side. Cheers!
3 comments:
Only good thing that I saw happen was Corbett is out. What say you?
Two personhood amendments failed. That's all I've got.
We retained our blue street cred here in California, for the most part. As for the rest of the U.S. of Dumbfuckistan, it was a pretty sad night.
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