About that election...

[ericadawn16]

I was going to have one mega politics post but I felt like it would be too long so I've broken it up.

Some things to keep in mind:

1. Did you see how close the majority of elections are? THIS is why we rail against unnecessary voting restrictions. The percentage of people who didn't vote is a distortion that includes those who WANTED to vote but were thwarted or denied being able to vote by malfunctions, incorrect information, unnecessary regulations, shortened early voting, hard to obtain absentee ballots or false criminal charges. Most of these people were those under 55. Some of them were probably even Republicans. Some might have been victims of the new poll taxes. Regular poll taxes are illegal so they've required photo IDs to have legal poll taxes. We must not make voting harder when voting is a RIGHT of all legal citizens over 18 who are not current felons. This is how the country becomes disenfranchised which is what the 1% wants. We can't let them win.

2. Yes, President Obama can veto any law he sees fit BUT...
Any veto can be over-ridden by Congress.

3. Money is once again proven to be the most important thing. The over-whelming majority of everyone and everything the Koch brothers threw their money at won. THIS is a HORRIBLE lesson! It completely underlines the majority of religions and moral codes.

4. Duke won.

Rick Scott and all his cronies who could have stopped Duke at any time and didn't were all re-elected. Nationally, they have the Koch brothers and everyone else on their side, too. Duke is one of the most dangerous companies to exist. They don't care about people. They don't care about the environment. They ONLY care about money and their customer bills prove it. Duke customers pays 20-30 dollars MORE than any other electric customer.

5. LGBTQA rights are now in danger.

Some of the higher courts are already backing down and allowing marriage bans. We can't be told that we are less than people. It's not right.

Comments

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

Stands and cheers all your comments. :o
HUGS, Jon

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Apparently every Presidency has been won by the candidate who spent the most money.

You'd think they could just get together at the start of the campaign, see who has the most in the bank account, and just let that guy win instead of spending all that cash, then they could spend it on actual useful things instead.

[dm12.livejournal.com]

Just a comment on #2. If Congress overrides the President's veto, that means there have to be a substantial number (at least 14 as it stands now) of Democrats supporting it, a bi-partisan support. Isn't that what we want? Perhaps it might even be that some Republicans don't and more Democrats do. Either way, it's a win because both parties have to come together to do that.

I do hate it when they just vote along party lines rather than what's good for their constituents or the country. That has been happening all too often. These people are put there to represent us, not the party.

As for "poll taxes," I know of one state that requires ID says that if you are getting State IDs for voting, it's free. No charge, no "tax." As for Driver's Licenses, well, you have to pay for that anyway if you want to drive (you don't have to drive), so it's no "poll tax" because you can always just get the State ID for free. I don't know about other states that require them, but that's how it's run in one state. Still, I'm not totally sure on that one.

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on everything you said on this post.

[alphaflyer.livejournal.com]

Can't disagree with a single thing you said here! Of course, I'm Canadian so watching all this from the sidelines -- but more than happy these days that we have spending ceilings for electoral campaigns. (In fact, one of our MPs just got convicted of exceeding his, and trying to conceal that fact. He had to resign his seat, and is now awaiting sentencing.)

PS: We also permit gay marriage... ;-)

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Bi-partisan support is great but I still remember the '90s when fear of Republicans made Hillary drop her healthcare plans and got Bill to sign DOMA and Don't Ask, Don't Tell...all of which are still having repercussions to this day.

That's great if some states truly don't charge for IDs. Florida charges $25. I know it doesn't seem like much but it's the principal. Voting is supposed to be free, period.
Plus, the DMV is not as easy as going to your local McDonalds or something. Our closest DMV, where you have to get a state ID, is 15 miles away...again, doesn't seem like much but if someone doesn't have a car and/or has a disability. It's a major deal.
Then, there are all those added precautions after 9/11. You have to PROVE you are you. if you're a divorced or married female who dared to change your name at some point, you have to have your marriage license or your divorce certificate on top of a state approved birth certificate. I say state approved because my mom had a birth certificate. This was the birth certificate she used to get her Masters in college, get teaching jobs and much, much later...work at Wal-mart. It had been good for 65 years. Then, the DMV said NO, that's not real. We need a NOTARIZED birth certificate. It took six freaking weeks, about fifty bucks and countless run-around...her name was even misspelled on the real one...before she was able to obtain her license. This would have been the same for an ID because the requirements are the same. We counted ourselves lucky that we had a vehicle, the internet, money and the ability to call long distance to make all of that happen. Not everyone has that. They might even have to give up and not have an ID.
Plus, to make matters worse, IDs, at least in Florida, have EXPIRATION dates now so they have to do the whole process all over again.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

First of all, I LOVE your icon.

Second of all, I wish we could have that there but we're kind of fucked at the moment because the Supreme Court ruled that money counts under Freedom of Speech.

I have faith that we'll fix that one day.

[dm12.livejournal.com]

We don't have IDs required to vote in IL (of course, Chicago's motto is "vote early, vote often, ,vote after you're dead"), but there's motor-voter supposedly to make it easier to register to vote. You do it when you get your driver's license (that way you have all your paperwork already there). You're right; it's easier to just go to the local village hall to register than to go to the DMV.