Election Day, 2021

This is it, folks. It's Election Day, the one day on which YOU - one American citizen - get to formally and officially commit your voice to the individuals, parties, and governing philosophies of which you approve. You don't do it with guns and unfocused rage, you do it by the simple and dignified act of going to your local polling place with your fellow citizens, standing tall, identifying yourself, and casting your ballot.

If you haven't already voted, be sure to give your decision on the candidates plenty of thought in these difficult times. Regardless of what you may think of the Democrats' specific policies and programs, they at least have some. The entire political program of the Republican Party consists of three things: wipe out taxes (especially on business and the wealthy), remove all restrictions on business, and worship Der Furor. All of these have led directly to the mess in which the nation now finds itself. 

If you believe in the Republican program of simply slashing taxes and eliminating programs, ask yourself what those taxes pay for and how those programs that are disappearing ultimately benefit you and your community. Nobody likes to pay taxes, but everyone likes the things they pay for. The simple fact that the government pays for a public service with your taxes does not equate to "socialism," "communism," or any of the other isms that are the boogeymen of the right.

Ask yourself what specific programs Republicans have advanced that directly benefit you, as opposed to big business and the top 1%. Ask yourself how much of that largesse has actually "trickled down" to you ... how much of the vast wealth at the top of the pyramid and the huge profits of big business have directly helped you. Has it improved your wages? Has it improved your life? Is your job more secure? Be honest.

For at least a decade, the GOP has railed against the horror of "socialized medicine" (however that is defined) and tried over and over again to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (AKA, "Obamacare") ... but has never - not once - provided anything that will replace it or improve the provision of affordable medical care to ordinary Americans. You'd think they'd have been able to come up with something.

Republicans have nothing to offer but unguided rage. They turn school board meetings into circuses by thundering against the horrendous evil of teaching Critical Race Theory to elementary and high school students ... without understanding what it is (just ask them to define it) or realizing that it is not a topic discussed anywhere below the university level. They insist on religious freedom, but only as it applies to evangelical "Christians." They insist that elections are "unfair" or "rigged" if they do not win, and rather than presenting policies and programs that will attract support from a broader swath of the population, they concentrate on simply reducing the number of people likely to vote against them by "scrubbing" voting rolls and gerrymandering electorally safe districts for Republicans*. While they insist that elections they've lost are "unfair" or "rigged," they have yet to provide the least bit of actual evidence that any measurable fraud or illegality has occurred ... their goal is simply to muddy the waters and encourage citizens to doubt the security of the electoral process.

The Democratic Party, at the moment, is doing its own imitation of the classic clown car, fighting with itself over its admirable goals and unable to present calm, rational summaries of its policies to push bak against the relentless Republican drumbeat of distortions, misrepresentations, selective statistics, and outright lies.

You have a choice today. 

You can vote for the party which is trying to make the government work for you, or for the party that has no clear policies or programs that will benefit you. 

You can vote for the party which is trying to protect your right to vote, or for the party that is trying to ignore and whitewash the violent and terrible riots that attempted to overturn the last election.

You can vote for the party which is trying to protect your right to vote, or for the party that is trying to make sure your vote won't count, even if they allow you to cast it.

I encourage you to vote for the party that is at least trying - however ineptly - to develop and present specific programs that will help you and I ... not those who need help least. 

Vote, dammit.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* To be fair, Democrats engage in gerrymandering, too ... but any dispassionate review would show that Republicans are far more thorough and relentless about it.