GOVERNMENT GOALS: TO VOTE OR NOT TO VOTE

Does it take a movie star, or blogger, to help get out the vote?

Probably not, but it can’t hurt either, especially when the voter numbers look so sketchy.

If the question is why vote, I know the answer.

To be fair, I know why I vote. Maybe we share the same goals as voters.

The vote I cast is all for public education, libraries, and the sort of institutions and people who are all about public education and libraries.

But Dave, you say, you’re a memoir blogger with blogger writer friends; do they all feel the same way?

Last time I checked, no one feels the same as anyone else unless they’re in a cult, but the people I know do understand the power of the vote.

Will a vote even count?

I’m old enough to remember how Florida worked in the 2000 election, how the 1980 election went, and why this time it should be better.

In 2000 the governor of Florida was candidate Bush’s little brother. Maybe it meant something, maybe not, but the Florida vote count made the news, the close election was decided by a vote in the Supreme Court, and Mr. Bush won.

To make it even more interesting, the Supreme Court justice who cast the deciding vote for the new president had been nominated by the first President Bush, Candidate Bush’s father.

Is that a reason to vote and vote correctly? Yes, yes it it.

Is voter suppression fake news?

This is where it starts getting murky. What exactly is voter suppression?

Here in Oregon we vote by mail. An envelope comes by way of the mailman, we open it, break out the voter manual, and go to town marking it up with a blue or black pen that can’t be changed without obvious effort.

Then we put it back in the mailbox and we’re done. Or we drive to a ballot mailbox and drop it in. It’s hard to suppress in Oregon.

Now imagine living someplace like Philadelphia or New York City. I use those two as examples because I lived in each for a short time before I cant to my senses and returned west.

Without driving in an urban center, getting around means riding the bus, the subway, or walking. I’ve seen people on the public transit after going to the grocery store. They looked hassled as hell. Same with going to the laundromat. Doing anything related to household stuff was hard.

Imagine having food and clothing and voting all on the same day. Which is the top priority, the middle, and the bottom? The great importance of voting comes after food and clean clothes, and it should.

Plan to vote

I’m including a vote post on boomerpdx because as blogger David Gillaspie, I want a smart country led by people who want a smart country.

I’m less likely to find an intelligent population in my garage just because I forgot and left the door open.

“Hey man, the door’s open, let’s check it out,” is not what is taught in school.

An intelligent population won’t test my front door.

“Dude, it’s unlocked and they’re probably asleep. Let’s take a look around,” is not civically responsible.

Do we need the smartest man in America to run the joint? Or the richest? The best looking? That’s no, no, and another no.

America is pretty set when the big job lands in the right hands. It’s been set since the U.S. invited itself to the big table of nations after defeating a former world power in the Spanish-American War. Defeating a world power is the price of admission.

WWI and WWII each brought out elements of America that have served the cause of peace on earth.

Failing to help rebuild Germany after 1918 set the table for the horrible 1920’s, demands for reparations ruined their economy, and helped land a nasty man, the nastiest in centuries, in control.

The Marshall Plan helped Europe recover from the horrible battle wounds of WWII and kept the second nastiest man in centuries from building an iron curtain further west.

The President of America needs to understand the idea of a balance of power and what happens when the level tilts too far one way or the other.

The earth has had natural and manmade disasters, enough to fill an ocean full of tears, and the most powerful man in the free world’s job is keeping the balance.

To show I’m a balanced citizen I plan to vote for a balanced candidate, one who speaks not only to me, but to the rest or the country, but mostly to me.

My balanced man or woman will make a point of hiring people for government jobs with experience in countries with problems affecting America. They will fill their cabinet with properly vetted people, balanced people, who know how to help America grow stronger while growing together.

What about the future vote

No one has ever asked for my pity, but I’m ready to share. There is a segment of America I like to call the ‘Don’t tell me what to do’ segment. They are proud free thinkers who don’t want to be told what to do. And I feel bad for them. Why?

In interview after interview I’ve heard people say they like X because “he tells it like it is,” and, “he’s not afraid to speak his mind.”

When a man tells you who to like or dislike, who to hate, who to fear, you’re being told what to do by someone dialed into the sales pitch. If a salesman knows which buttons to push, pushes them, and gets the results they wanted, you’ve been sold a bill of goods based on something other than free thinking.

If I slapped your face hard, then told you that’s what it will feel like if you don’t do what I say, that it’s just a warning because the other guy will slap your face, what do you do?

My guess is you won’t thank me for the warning. My second guess is you might hit back.

Think of the vote as a response to the slap warning, the hold your head in the toilet and telling you it’s a shampoo rinse warning, the burn you with fire because you said you were cold warning.

Am I missing anything?

to be continued …