#646 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #63. Your future is completely in your hands, now.

The American people – of which you are one – decide their future on Tuesday, November 6.
The choice has never been more stark, at all levels, in all states.
If you are an ordinary person, as I am, and 98% or more of the American people are ordinary like me, you are well advised to vote your personal interest and vote straight ticket Democrat on Tuesday, November 6.
In my entire life, I have never been as partisan as I am right now.
I believe in a multi-party democracy; in the value of differences of opinion. I am as I’ve said publicly since I began this blog in 2009: a “moderate pragmatic Democrat….”

But today’s Republican party – indeed since at least 1995 – has become ever more radical, extreme, “take no prisoners”, win-at-any-cost. The objective is permanent control of government at all levels by a tiny fringe of amoral partisans. Their fantasy is no more permanently attainable than was Hitler’s Thousand-year Reich.
If you are looking for old-line moderate Republicans, you will be hard-pressed to find them in todays Republican party. They’ve been purged, or resigned, or relegated to minority status.
The Democrats are the party of moderation now, the reasonable party.
You’ll vote (or not vote at all). Maybe you’ve voted already.
Be careful. Your vote has consequences.

*
Tomorrow: What led to my decision to recommend a one-party vote this year?
Tuesday: We’re all responsible for this mess. What now?
(If you wonder what that #63 in the subject line means, simply put Election 2012 in the search box, click, and you’ll find a list of all the posts I’ve done on Election 2012, beginning 6 months ago. #1, March 18, 2012, is here.)
Check back Monday and Tuesday for #64 and #65.
Twice before, in 2011, I did extended series on political issues: 18 posts from Feb 17-March 20, 2011 on the Wisconsin Government shutdown; many posts from June 29 – August 8, 2011 on the Government shutdown crises both in Minnesota and the United States Government.
COMMENTS (note possible additional comments at the end of the blogpost itself):
From Bob in Ohio, Nov 4: What worries me most in this election is the level of general ignorance that pervades the electorate.
And I have little confidence in the voting system as we have learned all too well here in Ohio. The pressure on elected officials in the controlling party of the state to behave unethically to influence the elections is disgraceful.
I will be absolutely amazed if this election does not turn on some quirk in the system that most of us will not believe.
From Will, Minnesota, Nov. 4: The Republicans probably have the voting machines fixed in key states, Karl Rove is smarter than any Dems, any organization such as ACLU, CCR and we will enter the Second Dark Ages, for how long, who knows?

3 replies
  1. Bruce Fisher
    Bruce Fisher says:

    Let me say upfront, that I will vote for Obama and want him to win. He will do the least damage to the issues I believe are most important. The beugiouse elite are in control of our political system and they are fine with both parties’ candidates. The reelection of Obama will not change that. My question to all of those who are so upset with the possibility of a Romney election, when Obama wins are you going to go out into the streets and demand social, climate, economic change? Are you going to battle the Oligarchs as they through the Obama administration, as they would through a Romney administration, dismantle our safety net and environment protection system in the name of deficit reduction and job creation? Or are you going to go back to your safe warm living rooms and think the battle is won now that we’ve reelected Obama? That’s what the Oligarchs want you to do.

    Reply
  2. Peter Barus
    Peter Barus says:

    Dick,
    I completely understand your point of view, and will probably vote as you do. However, there are a number of things that lead me to believe that this is but a gesture, totally ineffective as far as determining the course of our nation, or the titular head of same, because of structural deficiencies that rob my vote of any semblance of democracy.
    One is the fact that I live in Vermont; one is that I am known as a “democrat;” and for both reasons my vote will make no difference whatsoever to the outcome.
    But there are other, greater impediments to my vote counting. There is widespread corruption, from corporate cash to actual finagling of voting machinery, with every trick in the book being applied in “swing” states. And of course there is the Electoral College, a Bysantine throwback that severs any actual connection between our votes and who is anointed President.
    As if that wasn’t discouraging enough, the “debate” conversation across the nation has decided that the “deficit” is the biggest emergency facing us, bigger than global warming or perpetual war. This is of course a fantasy, but a convenient one for the politicians, who can pretend to be courageously fighting for a cause, instead of cravenly pocketing millions and giving the corporations total power.
    In short, there is no actual connection between the will of the people and the selection of the head of state.
    I take all this to mean that what we have as a political system is called Feudalism. Patronage and material wealth hold sway, and even hereditary entitlement: look at the dynasties we have going now: Bush, Clinton, Romney, Kennedy, Cuomo, etc., etc.? What are these but hereditary ruling families?
    With all this in mind, I went down to the Town Hall to change my Party affiliation to “Independent,” because I thought maybe my voice might be heard without instant dismissal as Red or Blue. But I was disappointed, because my Town Clerk smiled and said, “This is Vermont. You don’t register as Democrat or Republican or Independent, you just register as a Voter.”
    Well, alright, I will make the gesture. But I am not fooled. Neither candidate can, or will, end the endless war that sustains our “economy”. Neither will do anything to annoy Big Oil, or Big Finance, or Big Pharma. We will go down, whether slowly or rapidly, into a dreadful future, under either Party’s bogus and corrupt leadership.
    Hunker down.

    Reply
  3. norm hanson
    norm hanson says:

    Dick;s comments and observations are right on and I do plan to vote for Obama as well all other Democrats on the ballot. I just spent a deer hunting weekend with one of my brothers who grew up in a Democrat family but has become a T-Party far right conservative Republican. In my brother’s view of the world, all of the problems and ills int he US are a direct result of programs passed and adopted by those ##!!XX%% Democrats…it is as simple as that according to him and to at least one of my ROTC colleagues from UMD(U of Minnesota @ Duluth. Obamacare and other similar type of government supported programs are strictly $$##@@%% socialism and nothing more than that. In his view of the world, all government employees are %%$$@@^^ gomers who don’t know their — from the proverbial hole in the ground. I am a government employee but I am sure that he excludes me from his generalization but maybe not. In any even, I am looking forward to marking my X besides all of the Democrats on the ballot later this afternoon.

    Reply

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