Election Day Eve

 

I was thinking I should write something about the election tomorrow. My thoughts are coming and going at a hundred miles per hour. Sometimes I feel worried and very anxious, and then I think about the huge number of people—especially young people and women—who have already come out and cast their ballots.  Early in-person voting ended or will be ending and those who haven’t voted yet or mailed/deposited in a designated drop box will have to vote in person.

In some states, that can be a scary experience.  There’s already been reports of vigilantes geared up and carrying weapons showing up at drop boxes in Arizona to “make sure everything is done right.” The first response was to restrict these vigilantes from carrying their weapons etc., which was appealed and then a seniors group filed for a restraining order. A federal judge, Michael T. Liburdi denied the request.  He didn’t think armed vigilantes constituted a threat to voters dropping their ballots into drop boxes.  Great decision.

Every day, someone in the Rethuglican party says or does something that is increasingly disgusting, misleading, deflecting, inciting, or outright declaring the fascist policies they want to institute if they regain control of Congress. Important swing states are Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Nevada.  Michigan could go either way. Even our own representative, Andy Kim, has gone from basically no-contest to toss-up.  A lot of it is because of Rethuglican gerrymandering. How they got away with that is a puzzle to me.

Rethuglicans have been very clever at placing their followers into positions of authority on school boards, as election agents and secretaries of state.  Red governors and red secretaries of state could throw out or contest votes that go against them.

Then there’s the violence that just sickens me. A twisted tRumper broke into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s house.  He didn’t find her there and, instead, brutally attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer.  Instead of condemning the act or sympathizing with the Pelosis, Rethuglican legislators chose to mock and joke at what happened.  I only saw messages condemning the violence from Senator McConnell and Rep. Kinzinger.  There were just crickets from everyone else.  Where is the morality?  Have these MAGAs flat out sold their souls to tRumpism?

I knew that members of the January 6^th committee had to have protection and also needed protection for their families.  I knew that other people were being threatened either because they wouldn’t fall in line with tRumpism or to scare them to the point they wouldn’t speak out against what MAGAs were doing.  Now MAGAs target the families. 

When Paul Pelosi was attacked so brutally and Rethug legislators chose to either mock or keep lips zipped tight, I felt like my mind was blown.  I remember a time when the R’s and D’s would work together to find common ground in spite of their differences.  What’s happening now is absolutely horrifying.  How do you begin to connect with soulless people like that?  The ones who object but are too afraid to speak up are complicit too.  By not condemning what MAGAs are doing, these cowards are supporting the violence, the outright lies, manipulation, and terror tactics employed by their party.

Some of them claim to be “Christian” nationalists but they aren’t at all.  It makes me so mad to see them proclaiming to follow the teachings of Christ…but are doing the exact opposite.  The awful policies they want to instate are anti-Christian.  Jesus wouldn’t approve.  Obviously, these “Christian” nationalists aren’t reading the New Testament.

And what is this nonsense about the United States being a Christian country? It’s not and never was intended to be.  Obviously these MAGAs also haven’t read any of the quotes by John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, or even Ronald Reagan.

John Adams said: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Mohammedan] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

Thomas Jefferson said: ““If, therefore, from the settlement of the Saxons, to the introduction of Christianity among them, that system of religion could not be a part of the common law, because they were not yet Christians; and if, having their laws from that period to the close of the common law, we are able to find among them no such act of adoption; we may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges and writers on earth) that Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law.”

And this from former President Ronald Reagan, a Repub hero: “We establish no religion in this country, church and state are, and must remain separate.”

In this country, people practice many different religions.  How dare the MAGAs think they can force us all into one?  That’s really scary.

MAGAs are against anything that would serve people, including social security, Medicare, Medicaid, reproductive rights, the right to love and marry whomever you want, and to blatantly discriminate against people of color, different religions, and different sexuality and gender identity.  What they propose to do is absolutely brutal to the already badly damaged middle class.

Why do people vote against their own best interests?  It continues to boggle my mind.

I don’t even know what point I’m trying to make. That’s how frazzled I feel and how fired up my brain continues to be, protesting against all this evil.  I write and post and tweet but it doesn’t seem like I’m heard.  I do feel engaged and positive when I phone or text bank. I am connecting directly with voters and I feel as if I’m doing something useful and helpful.

Tomorrow is Election Day. If we voters really love the US and the Constitution, then we’ll all make sure to vote blue.  I already did.  I’m praying for good news when all the results are counted.

Here are newsletters where I get trustworthy information:

Voter Intimidation by Dan Rather

Political Violence by Dan Rather

Dispatches From A Collapsing Nation

An Unsettled Time by Dan Rather

Musk, Trump, and the Demeaning of America by Robert Reich

Tsunami of Truth by Michael Moore, the latest in an ongoing series