By now, you’ve been inundated with pamphlets and flyers, you’ve heard thousands of commercials from pretty much everything that’s on the ballot, and you’ve been reading me for the last month beat you over the head with the VOTE NOW stick.
Here is what has been littering my mailbox for the last couple weeks.
One last time, send in your ballot. Vote for the democrats. Vote for progressive issues that are actually focused on long-term benefits, and think less about the short term adjustments that one might have to make.
It may seem futile, because I’m sure you’ve heard the pundits say that Republicans stand to take a goodly portion of Congress back… but democrats have to hold on to as much as they can if we can actually expect anything helpful to get accomplished.
Lest we forget, that it was 8 years of George W. Bush’s uselessness in the Oval Office, and that Republican Congress that brought us the shitstorm that is the current economy, two wars that are near impossible to win, and has given the lowest earners the heaviest proportionate tax burden. Bankers were given carte blanche to rape and pillage the American economy. GLBTQ rights came to a screeching halt. The essential wall between Church and State eroded away… The Republicans made this mess… and now they want back in power to completely destroy anything good in the US.
The next few days will be loaded with final words from candidates and the final pushes to sell you on the Initiatives. What is most depressing is that Democrats, yet again, are trying to sell the idea of “compromise” and “reaching across the aisle”, but Republicans have (again) put stuck their fingers in their ears and said NO! to anything that resembles compromise. Democrats may wish to get everyone together, and bridge the divide, and sing Kumbaya and hold hands, and talk about how the things we have in common can triumph over what divides us… it can’t. The days of any hope for healing have come to an end. It is now time to fight.
The Republicans aren’t even hiding behind a false front of kindness or forbearance anymore. They’ve effectively said that if they get re-elected, they’re going to go back to what they were doing before – before we elected Obama… before we opted for hope. They’re going back to making sure that GLBTQ people are second class citizens.
Your vote is essential. And Washingtonians, if you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain if Dino Rossi is your new junior Senator.
And your hope of a legally recognized marriage fades into oblivion.
Les Sterling is an artist living in Seattle, and freelance contributor to Seattle Gay Scene.
