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| Zelensky and his family in happier times. Click to enlarge. |
BBC correspondent Katty Kay, based in the United States, writes:
Since coming into office, Joe Biden has spoken repeatedly about the tectonic struggle between democracy and autocracy. It's been the leitmotif of his presidency. His argument is that democracy must deliver for its people if it's going to survive. But there's another side to that social contract. We citizens have to deliver for democracy as well.
For a start, we have to bother to vote. It's an activity America is famously bad at. In the 2020 election, one of the most consequential in recent history, only 62% of eligible voters bothered to turn out and vote. That was a modern day high. The UK doesn't do much better, 67% voted in its last general election. . . .
Of course it's not just the lack of participation that weakens liberal societies. Twenty-first century democracies are hotbeds of social and economic inequality. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Many democracies, like the US, have such polarised political systems that you can't get laws passed that would make lives better. They've become virtually ungovernable. Long-term challenges, like climate change, get kicked down the road as politicians focus their efforts on short term gains, like getting re-elected.
Democracies aren't giving the next generation the tools they will need to be responsible democratic citizens in a complicated, changing world. Our kids need lessons on how to spot real news from fake news and how to avoid baseless conspiracy theories that undermine the strength of democracy itself. . . .
I am part of a generation that has taken political pluralism for granted. Decades of peace produced a failure of imagination. Despite the war tales our parents told us, we couldn't envisage that a way of life we'd all got used to might disappear if we didn't defend it.
Ukraine has snapped us awake. It has shown us both the risks, and, more inspiringly, what it means to really care for democracy. In a war they didn't choose, Ukrainians are fighting, and dying, for the right to free elections, to the rule of law, and an impartial media, for the right to be a democratic country. Their bravery puts our laziness to shame.
Ukrainian President Zelensky will be interviewed on the long-running CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes tomorrow. Excerpt:
"We are defending the ability of a person to live in the modern world," Zelensky says. Rhetorically, no one can dispute that inconvenient truth that puts all Western nations to shame. "Being brave is our brand, " Zelensky said two days ago, "This is what it means to be us. To be Ukrainians. To be brave. If everyone in the world had at least ten percent of the courage that we Ukrainians have, there would be no danger to international law at all."
It may not be not quite that simple - but once again, he gets to the heart of the moral dilemma confronting the West that I have mentioned since my first post about this damnable war: every moral fiber quivers with the impulse to join Zelensky and his people in the fight against a monstrous evil; but to do so would probably mean a death sentence for many millions of people far from Ukraine, and unthinkable destruction on a gigantic scale. A devil's dilemma, that's what it is.
And who knows but what the unthinkable won't happen anyway, no matter how carefully Western leaders tiptoe around the edge of the abyss? God forbid. I have no idea what to do or what to say. I can only join with all other decent men and women in saluting the fierce courage of the Ukrainians and their indomitable president. May God deliver them from all assaults of the enemy and give them peace - and all the rest of the world, too.
For a long, thoughtful read, here's a link to an essay by the BBC's Fergal Keane: "Ukraine, the UN and History's Greatest Broken Promise."
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On the way home we picked up some groceries, including a little slice of blueberry cheese - yes, there is such a thing and it's delicious - came home, kicked off our shoes, and celebrated our votes with assorted cheeses, pepperoni slices, homemade "pizza toast," and a bottle of Guinness each. Also conversation, music, and laughs. Cheaper and much more fun than going out to a bar, we both agreed.
So for the record, the Pork Boys have done their patriotic duty to put the country back on the right track. The rest is up to all of you.
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| The brown-nosing and sucking-up begins: People magazine glorifies Trump on the cover of its next issue. (Do I really have to point out the divine-halo effect for you guys?) |
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| A summary of the popular and electoral votes from Wikipedia. |
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| Voting-age population characteristics from the United States Census Bureau, posted on their website Oct. 28, 2016. Click to enlarge. |
Because one day you'll be standing before Jeebus and have to account for your actions when he asks, "Why did you vote for a leader who's attempting to redefine my institution of marriage?" And if your answer is "because that leader was good on jobs and the economy," you are TOTALLY getting your ass sent to hell. Apparently Jeebus doesn't care too much whether you fed the poor or healed the sick. Blah, blah, BORING. What will get you ushered into Everlasting Glory, clearly, is spending your time on Earth with your Holy Boots on the necks of the heathens. Prai$e Hi$ Name! Vote GOP!
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| This guy is going to vote tomorrow - why aren't you? |
No one has been more gravely disappointed and, at times livid, with the practically non-existent record of President Obama on LGBT equal rights. Over and over again I have held this administration's feet to the fire in an effort to force them to move forward in our struggle for freedom. As we all know by now, those pleas often have fallen on deaf ears. Our disappointment, anger and frustration is totally justified.Mike Signorile:
What is not justified is to allow those emotions to intrude on our ability to be intelligent voters this election day. We cannot and should not shoot ourselves in the collective foot because of the administration's actions.
Why is it important to vote? Let's get right down to it: If the House and Senate fall into Republican Tea Party hands on November 2nd, the LGBT community will be facing the most hostile United States Congress in our history. The election of these bonafide Teabagging wing-nuts could cause chaos, fear and intimidation in our political process. Their ascendancy to power would validate some truly dark and despicable forces operating in American politics. If we think it is hard to achieve equal rights now just try and do it in a Tea Party dominated Congress.
In recent weeks I've heard some of you call in and say you're not voting, sitting this one out because you're unhappy with the White House or Congress. Others have said they'll vote for a lesser candidate, pretty much giving their vote to a Republican in a close election. But I have said on the show for quite a while now, no matter how angry you are at President Obama or disappointed with the Democratic leadership -- and I've been one of the biggest critics around -- it is imperative that you get out and vote for the Democrats and against the tea party-backed Republicans.Keith Olbermann kicks ass and names names:
The Republican Party would like nothing better than to see the discontent in the Democratic base help them install truly the most extreme lot of candidates we have seen in many years. We've exposed the tea party as nothing more than a reconfiguration of all the religious zealots, moral crusaders, racists and bigots who've been around for years. Do not attempt to punish the President or the Democrats by punishing yourself. This country has been in a very precarious state for a long time, in which the political winds can usher in something radical and extreme very quickly. Bad economic times are always an opportunity for those who seek to do that. We have demanded and will demand full accountability by the Democrats and President -- who is not on the ballot until 2012 -- but don't do it by giving power to your enemies. As David Mixner says . . . vote as if your life depends on it, because it does.
The [objective is] to elect a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get: backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the 1930's, or backward to hanging union organizers, or backward to the trusts and the robber barons. Result? The Tea Party. Vote backward, vote Tea Party.Think again. And if you city boys don't know how to use a gun, you'd fucking well better VOTE tomorrow, goddammit.
And if you are somehow indifferent to what is planned for next Tuesday, it is nothing short of an attempted use of democracy to end this democracy. To buy America wholesale and pave over the freedoms and the care we take of one another, which have combined to make us the envy of the world. You do not think your freedom is at stake next Tuesday?
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| You do know what he means, don't you? |
