A warning from a gay man of color regarding voting for 2016

[Coolest Ranger]

Hi everyone. Cordell here again. I am very concerned about a trend I'm seeing on social media. Yes I know earlier I said I gave up all my accounts but certain family members talked me into going back. That being said, I got up and noticed that quite a few people said that they don't think their votes will matter come 2016. It greatly disturbs me on so many levels. I am here to plead no plead is too weak of a word, I am here to beg everyone to please do not sit home next year. Too much is at stake for us to do that.

My biggest fear is that enough people will stay home and not vote which will hand the republicans the white house as well as the Senate and the house. It does not take much of an imagination to figure out what they will do when they get the halls of power. I just want to talk briefly about some of the things we'll lose if we all stay home in 2016.

Returned The Executive Branch To Fiscal Responsibility

Within his first week, he signed an Executive Order ordering an audit of government contracts, and combating waste and abuse. http://1.usa.gov/dUvbu5

Created the post of Chief Performance Officer, whose job it is to make operations more efficient to save the federal government money. http://n.pr/hcgBn1

On his first full day, he froze White House salaries. http://on.msnbc.com/ewJUIx

He appointed the first Federal Chief Information Officer to oversee federal IT spending.http://www.cio.gov

He committed to phasing out unnecessary and outdated weapons systems. To that end, he also signed the Democratic-sponsored Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act, which attempted to put a stop to waste, fraud and abuse in the defense procurement and contracting system. http://bit.ly/hOw1t1http://bit.ly/fz8GAd

Through an executive order, he created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. http://bit.ly/hwKhKa

Republicans have told us for decades that they believe in physical responsibility yet when they are in charge, all I have ever seen them do is run up the debt. Perfect example was when Ted Cruz shut down the government last year costing us 24 billion dollars and they are threatening to do that again. I can only imagine the horror of what these guys are going to do if they get all 3 branches of government.

Ladies and I'm talking to you right now. You think it's bad in the southern states now. Imagine how bad things will get when they start passing these anti-abortion laws on a federal level. Imagine returning to the era where women have to go into a back alley to get an abortion or god forbid, going to Mexico to get an abortion and putting their lives at risk.

Imagine all those great executive orders he wrote over the last few years, wiped out by President Scott Walker, or President Donald Trump or gak, President Ben Carson. Come on are you really going to stay home because your issues are not getting addressed?

Let's not forget that the next President will get to appoint not one but maybe 3 Supreme Court justices to the bench. Imagine the court going full right wing and staying that way for the next 30 years. You think things are bad now, just wait until they use religion to justify the hatred towards people like me. You think things are bad now, just wait until workers can't unionize or better yet, wait until they make it so that you can't even get a day off any more.

You think not voting is going to send a statement? Think again. Look, I just got my rights as a gay man. I'm happy as hell I can marry who I want, but now the thought of us losing everything we've gained because people think their vote doesn't matter scares the living hell out of me. I do not post here very often but I am here pleading with my fellow liberals to do not stay home. I do not want to wake up the day after the election going back to fearing what is going to happen. I do not want to have to spend my 40s stressed out worrying that my disability is going to be cut because I'm not a billionaire. I do not want to spend my 40s worrying if I'm going to live until we can elect a democrat to the white house again.

Please everyone, I'm begging you. Make sure you get people to the polls next year. Make sure we keep the White House, Make sure we gain enough seats in the house to slow the Republican's goals. Do not forget the down ticket races either. Cause we need to take back the state houses and Governor's offices as well. And my most important plea to everyone, do not stay home in 2018. For the first time in my life I am literary scared at where this country is going. I am in fear for my life due to all the violence against people of color. I am scared at all the hate and racism I am seeing from the right. I do not want to live in fear any more. Please reassure me that everyone is going to go out and vote next year.

Thank you. I love you all

[beam me up scottie]

1. K & R.

No, thank YOU, Cordell.

[mopinko]

2. your subject line made something else pop into my head.

i wonder if same sex couple, now that they are in the govt records, will be targeted for voter roll purges.

[JackInGreen]

6. Thanks...

Light up my paranoia...

[freshwest]

23. The GOP interfered with divorced women who hadn't reclaimed their maiden names in TX.

It's a valid concern. And with further regression in the USSC, a case could come up that would once again throw some aspects of SSM back to the states.

It may seem hard for some who are not affected to believe such could happen, but look at what's been done with Roe v. Wade.

Rand Paul has promised to continue his Personhood attack on reproductive rights and even to ask for an Article V convention, which the conservatives can call if they ever get enough red states, which is their plan, to redefine the clauses of the 14A.

Some people's revered 4th amendment did not protect women's right to choose. It took a Civil War and the 14th amendment for that. The 4th also did not protect Dred Scott, as he was not considered a person. Those who are not affected, will not cite this history nor have the same concerns.

The three clauses in the 14th amendment that have meant the most in our lives have been Due Process, Equal Protection Under the Law, and Birthright Citizenship. Paul Ryan has called for elimination of Birthright Citizenship by an Article V convention to deny immigrants the right to vote.

Rand also wants to have an Article V convention to 'redefine' personhood to include fertilized eggs, thus denying women and their doctors the choice on their course of action. We've seen this in states that have jailed pregnant women but appointed public attorneys for the fetus, but not them. We've seen it in states that forbade doctors from telling pregnant women with tubal pregnancies of that fact, even though the doctor knew neither the woman nor child would survive. And calls for the death penalty for women who have had abortions. That information could be found in health records.

Rand also says rather than grant SSM, toss out federal rights under marriage. And he is a Tenther who wants to devolve the country into States and not have a USA. Let the different fiefdoms run by the robber barons decide what the rights of the people within their territory decide, with no universal standard to go to get help.

An Article V Constitutional convention is the toolbox the Koch brothers want to use to remake America into something most of us can't imagine, and many will not survive. That is the cost of not voting, with blood on the hands of those who don't, who are not allies.

In the meantime, the GOP is using obstruction and defunding the EPA and every other instrument of the people's justice against corporations. No one seems to know this is going on and they just trash the EPA or whatever. They just trash the government since it's trendy. Others have to fight this out.

We are being attacked from above and below. I can tell that you see how it all ties together on this.

[handmade34]

3. ...

[NCTraveler]

4. "Republicans have told us for decades that they believe in physical responsibility"

One of the most appropriate typo's I have ever seen. I'm not even sure if it was a mistake.

Great op. Thank you.

[brer cat]

5. Excellent post, Cordell.

It bothers me to see the vitriol on DU when this is a time we must pull together to elect a democrat, and we have at least three good candidates to chose from. Tearing down candidates and the people who endorse them, and slamming movements like BLM does not strengthen our party, it is bitterly divisive. The possibility of losing what we have gained since the Bush disaster should be ample incentive to pull together, and commit to GOTV.

K&R

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. +1. n/t

[JackInGreen]

7. Thank you

We'll make sure. No worries.

[kaiden]

8. Thank you, Cordell!

[madamvlb]

9. Great post. Thank You!

[retrowire]

10. this needs to be posted everywhere

voter apathy needs to stop.

[Betty Karlson]

11. Agreed, but please understand:

those enclined to stay home on election feel their votes don't matter because they feel their votes are taken for granted.

If the argument rests on "vote for me, the other guy is worse" don't be angry if a few people say "No thanks, I'd rather vote between something good and something evil, not for the lesser of two evils."

Consistently ignoring your base is not a winning ticket.

Look at Florida: pandering to swing voters doesn't work there: winning Florida relies on running up the margins by getting out the vote. The best way to do so is to tell the base that you will tend to their concerns, not to tell the base to shut uyp and help pander to those illusive swing voters who aren't really there.

Loving you right back,

Betty

[jeff47]

12. Boy, Democrats better get to work on giving those voters someone to vote for.

'Cause 2010 and 2014 demonstrate just how well "Republicans bad!! Tax cuts good!!" works as a strategy.

You don't stop voter apathy by lecturing and demanding the voter change. You stop voter apathy by giving them a candidate they want to vote for.

[appalachiablue]

19. Bernie is the 1st candidate that I've wanted to vote FOR this much in years. When you follow

a sports event you don't just want the other team to screw up and LOSE, you're supporting your team to WIN. I dislike the sports analogy but given our media/entertainment culture it works in some ways.
Yesterday Bernie spoke at the 50th Anniv. of the VRA, Voting Rights Act signed into law by LBJ on Aug. 6, 1965. The celebration event was hosted by Civil Rights groups in WDC at the MLK Jr. Memorial. As Bernie's been saying on the campaign trail, in 2014, 63% of Americans did not vote; 70% of the young and 80% of working people did not vote last year. Hillary has also recently brought up the importance of the vote and the issue of encroaching vote suppression.

Newer anti-democratic voting restrictions and rules designed to curb imaginary voter fraud are driving voter suppression and low turnout of blacks, PoC, the young, workers, poor and elders- all Democratic leaning constituents. The 2013 RW SCOTUS nullification of the VRA clause on racial discrimination opened the door and has made it much harder for many voters to obtain photo ID's and driver's licenses requiring costly birth certificate copies and to jump through other hoops, obstruction measures that are in fact a poll tax, as Rep. John Lewis said.

Elimination of early voting and same day voter registration rules that have been implemented in many places are other new changes aimed to deter voting as well. I feel like we're in the 1950s and 1930s again in many ways. Last year a caller to Thom Hartmann explained how it would be very difficult for the seniors who he's been taking to the polls for years, to obtain new Photo IDs in time to vote according to recent laws instituted by Scott Walker in WI.

Like others here have expressed, I also hope Bernie's campaign team, and even HRC's group are well aware of the prevalent manipulation of electronic ballots although it's not clear what can be done about it. Some FEC we have in these times, on par with the 35 year demolition of federal and local govt. and hence the rise of the corporate state.

[HFRN]

13. ' Come on are you really going to stay home because your issues are not getting addressed? '

that's pretty much what I'm told whenever I bring up the sellout of H-1b visa. I never get a justification for supporting it, just a snap of the fingers and 'get under the bus where you belong - you owe us your vote, we owe you nothing'

it's a position completely contrary to the party's claimed philosophy of fairness to workers, it's a de-facto indentured servitude - it's anything but a 'niche' or 'special' issue

?w=490'

[stopwastingmymoney]

14. K & R, great post, nt

[Raine1967]

15. Hi Cordell!

K&R!

[FSogol]

16. THIS: "Please everyone, I'm begging you. Make sure you get people to the polls next year."

Wish I could rec that ? times.

[JustAnotherGen]

17. No truer words at du - kick and rec!

[appalachiablue]

20. K & R. Thanks for your exellent OP!

[HFRN]

21. A page from Orwell's 'Animal Farm'

The mystery of where the milk went to was soon cleared up. It was mixed every day into the pigs' mash. The early apples were now ripening, and the grass of the orchard was littered with windfalls. The animals had assumed as a matter of course that these would be shared out equally; one day, however, the order went forth that all the windfalls were to be collected and brought to the harness-room for the use of the pigs. At this some of the other animals murmured, but it was no use. All the pigs were in full agreement on this point, even Snowball and Napoleon. Squealer was sent to make the necessary explanations to the others.

"Comrades!" he cried. "You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back! Surely, comrades," cried Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his tail, "surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?"

Now if there was one thing that the animals were completely certain of, it was that they did not want Jones back. When it was put to them in this light, they had no more to say. The importance of keeping the pigs in good health was all too obvious. So it was agreed without further argument that the milk and the windfall apples (and also the main crop of apples when they ripened) should be reserved for the pigs alone.


https://www.marxists.org/subject/art/literature/children/texts/orwell/animal-farm/ch03.htm

[freshwest]

22. Cordell, thank you and so glad to see an OP that speaks for me and mine, too. You're the best. n/t

[Number23]

24. K&R