by Sue Saltmarsh
Hope. That’s what I’m left with as I watch MSNBC at night or the Sunday shows before football. And it’s not hope for some shining Camelot to emerge from the sewer of poverty, ignorance, violence, and hatred that dominates this country’s life today. No, it’s hope that all those talking heads are wrong, that in the seemingly infinite battle between the best and worst of two evils, the American people will prove the prognosticators wrong and, for once, vote in their own best interests.
After all, here in red downstate Illinois, there are just as many Republican farmers and business owners who are finding themselves unable to pay the inflated premiums and deductibles for health insurance for themselves or their employees as there are in blue Chicago; just as many conservative teachers struggling to make up for budget cuts by spending their own meager salaries on supplies as liberal ones; just as many people of all political stripes who are sick of the petty negative ads that have nothing to do with a candidate’s ability to do the job as there are in any other state in the union. So why shouldn’t we show up and prove that the part-time, never-take-a-vote-on-anything-important Congress we have now is NOT ACCEPTABLE?
No, I’m not saying throw them all under the bus. I’m saying get rid of the ones whose first (and sometimes only) priority is their own bank balance and setting themselves up with a lucrative lobbying job for when they finally lose their seat.
Imagine the Congress we could have if each of us A) knew who our representatives and senators are B) paid attention to how they vote and C) let them know when they did something we like or something we were opposed to. Too much work, you say? Politics doesn’t matter to you? Here are some of the things your elected officials decide “for you”:
- How much money you make per hour
- If you can see a doctor, dentist, or mental health provider
- How much you pay for a train or plane ticket
- Whether or not you’re a terrorist
- What kind of food you eat
- How much you pay in taxes
- Where your kids can go to school
- Who you can marry
- When you can get protection from abuse, stalking, or harassment
- If you can have access to the Internet
If everyone stopped to think about the things in that list that are important to their lives, I’d venture to say there would be plenty of Republicans who
- start out at McDonald’s and would like to make a living wage
- would like to be able to go to the doctor without going bankrupt
- search Expedia, Travelocity, other travel sites, plane and train websites for the lowest fare
- may have an Arabic-sounding last name but aren’t terrorists
- are concerned about genetically modified or toxic food
- gladly accept their responsibility to contribute to society by paying taxes
- hate that their kids’ school was shut down due to budget cuts
- are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or polygamous and would like to marry the people they love
- live their lives in constant fear and are told that there’s nothing the police can do until they are victimized
- can’t afford to pay for an Internet connection and/or access is limited by censorship (as in public libraries)
If voters could somehow stop caring (or even knowing?) whether it was a Democrat or a Republican who initially sponsored raising the minimum wage or excluding education as a source of “saving,” or providing healthcare for all and just asked themselves, “What’s best for me and those I care about?” we would live in a truly representative democracy.
But that’s selfish, you argue? There are always going to be people who only care about themselves and their family. But for many others “those I care about” encompasses the entire population, including people they will never know. They are the ones who keep society on the right track and we need more of them! Or maybe they just need to come out of hiding.
I have hope that before and on November 4, we WILL wake up and defeat the dirty tricks they’ve tried this time to keep us down. We’ll talk to our Republican neighbors and ask them to name what’s best about the Republican candidate over the Democrat or Independent (and thank gods there are more Independents with each election!). Find out what issues are important to them and do some campaigning yourself! Not only may you win a vote or two for the good guys (and you might even find out that yours isn’t the good one), but you’ll get to know your neighbors!
I’m no feminist for sure, but women, if you don’t get out there and vote to protect your and every other woman’s right to NOT have a child you can’t support or which threatens your own life; if you allow religious ideology as misogynistic as that of ISIS terrorists to dictate how you live your life; if you accept lower pay, sexual harassment, or domestic violence as the status quo, you deserve exactly what you vote for. There are voting records of legislators on all those issues – look yours up! Don’t know who they are? Look them up!
I am so inspired by the courage and dedication of the people who marched in the Climate March in NYC and who fill the streets in Hong Kong. I’m also encouraged by the number of actually viable candidates I’ve found from the Green party as I visit candidates’ websites for the DUH 2014 Candidates page on our website – in 2010, there was one who had a professional website with the necessary information and photos of her looking like she could hold her own among Washington politicians. This year, so far there are six (and I’m only through Missouri) who have earned DUH’s endorsement over Rs and Ds.
So I do have hope. But I’m trusting and perhaps naive enough to believe that there will be more than just a handful of single-payer activists at the Healthcare Justice March on the National Mall next summer. I guess time will tell on both fronts.
For now, realize that by sticking your head in the sand, you can only be identified by what an ass you are.
Politisue 