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

The Bluest Eye (On The Banned Book List)

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison has been on my to-read pile for several years.  It appeared on a list of banned books, and I decided I would read it. I would highly rate it but I have mixed feelings about the story. I felt sad as I read.

The story told from different points of view, which threw me off a little but once I got it, I was able to absorb what happened to each character.  The main characters were Pecola, who was about 12, and her foster sister, Claudia, who was a little younger.  Claudia appeared both as a child and adult narrator as she recalled the events of the year 1941-42.

What saddened me:

The very realistic portrayal of poverty

The misogyny of the day, where men had all the power and women’s rights were limited

The self-hatred some of the characters felt. For example, Pecola wanted blue eyes because she felt they would make her feel beautiful. She and the characters in the book were all black. Her mother worked for a white family and lavished attention on the family’s blonde, blue-eyed daughter while ignoring or abusing Pecola.  Pecola felt she was ugly by white standards.  Tragic.

It was the Jim Crow era.  Awful.

Domestic violence and sexual abuse always sadden me to the point of deep melancholy.   I am empathic so scenes like that hurts me because I envision what the victim must have been feeling and going through.  I also think about the too many victims of abuse all around us.

Still, I think it’s an important book to read, especially by school kids.  I think the bullied kids would strongly identify with the isolation and loneliness Pecola must have felt being rejected everywhere.  Hopefully, the kids would also realize that self-love and acceptance are absolutely vital.

I would like to think that, in an alternate universe, Pecola’s story may have been told very differently.

Sheeple Panic/"New Normal" No Way

After deleting a bunch of junk mail, I came across History’s “This Day In History” newsletter.  On October 30, 1938, a very young Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre group decided to air an updated version of H.G. Wells’ book The War Of The Worlds.  They didn’t realize or expect the extreme panic it caused.  More details here.  I learned about it in an independent reading sometime when I was a teenager and my reaction was: how dumb could people be to fall for this?  A few years ago, I saw and episode of Cold Case called World’s End that gave an accurate depiction of the panic.

It seems what happened was radio listeners tuned in to the show late because they’d been listening to another show first.  They thought it was real and totally freaked.  I still wonder about it.  How could so many people not recognize the story?  How many could possibly ignore the parts of the show that clearly indicated this was fiction?

Well, then I thought about tRumpers.  Not the radicalized violent followers, nor the we-know-we’re-lying-but-we-don’t-care Rethuglicans.  I don’t mean them.  I mean your average voter.  They remind me of the people who freaked and panicked in 1938 because they believed what they were hearing.  These voters are swallowing The Big Lie because it’s been repeated to them  so many times it must be true.  They are drinking the Kool-Aid and are wearing blinders as well.  They don’t hear or see the truth and they happily vote against their own self interests. 

They don’t seem to mind when their representatives and favored famous idols say or do something cruel or commit acts of violence. They’re either celebrating over what happened or are silent.  They'll happily accept the "new normal" behavior from their representatives and heroes.

There are not even cricket sounds from our Rethuglican representatives and senators after the vicious attack on Paul Pelosi.  I saw something from Mitch McConnell that condemned the violence but not a single word from the House Rethug leader, Kevin McCarthy.  Some of those folk even have the nerve to mock what happened or, even worse, to celebrate it.  It was a horrifying attack against an innocent victim who just happened to be married to Speaker Pelosi.

The threats against Speaker Pelosi have been increasing.  There are threats against the members of the House Special Committee on January 6^th.  All of them need protective detail…but family members don’t qualify for that protection.  That’s how that tRumper was able to break in and injure Paul Pelosi.  Now family members are being targeted? Even organized families had an understanding to leave spouses, kids and grandkids alone.

Election officials and workers are being threatened.  Armed tRumper violent militia extremists have shown up to intimidate voters.

Is this America or is it AmeriKKKa?

And are we going to accept this as the new normal?  I would think that every Democrat would be loudly condemning this political violence that tRump and his cronies are inciting.  I am so not impressed with the lack of strong responses from the Democrats. 

I am not going to stand for this.  I will get up on my pedestal and holler from my laptop.  What’s happening now is NOT OKAY.  I know there are others who feel as I do.

Here are other columns that I read that tie in to all of this:

Dispatches From A Collapsing State

Raw Story

Michael Moore

Dan Rather

Mad As Hell But Taking Dan Rather's Advice

It all boiled over yesterday after that vicious attack on Paul Pelosi (meant for Speaker Nancy Pelosi), Ke being approved back into Facebook, and the threat implied in Randy Quaid’s GQP tweet.  What happened is very clear proof the coup on our democracy is not over.  And people like Ke and Quaid and are making outrageous disgusting behavior the new norm. And “Christian” nationalists keep dragging God and Jesus into their sorry behavior. 

This is how I feel:

I'm As Mad As Hell

And then I read Dan Rather’s tweet.  Dan Rather is one of the very few journalists I trust for the truth. His advice today makes complete sense to me.  I plan to put aside thoughts, grief, and despair about the evil doings of the GQP, trumpers, and “Christian” nationalists.

Today my daughters are coming for a visit.  I’m planning a nice roast chicken dinner and we’ll visit and then either watch a movie or a Netflix series.

I am going to reread Jane Goodall’s The Book Of Hope.  She said that many times she’s felt anger and despair about what was happening but still kept nourishing that flame of hope that things will get better.  She suggested several things to remember during dark times and now, of course, I can’t remember them all.  Worthy of a reread for sure.

I’m going to be phone banking, encouraging voters to mail their ballots or go to the polls.  Some of the dialers I use have software that will bring up locations for voting and if anyone is unsure where to show up, I can give them answers.  I do feel much better when I talk to voters and share our views.

There will be music almost 24/7 this weekend.  Right now, I’m listening to Tran Siberian Orchestra’s Lost Christmas Eve. Yes, I know we haven’t had Halloween yet.  This music comforts and soothes me. 

And then there’s Country First.

I do have hope in spite of being angry.  I am staying steady.