I don't know where you live, but I live in Texas. I have, for the last about four years, written an average of three letters a week to my government representatives. Almost without fail, the responses I get back (when they bother to reply at all), come in a very condescending, pat-the-ignorant-idiot-on-the-head type response that amounts to little more than "now now you stupid little liberal, you just don't worry your pretty little head about all this complicated government stuff, and let us godly folk run the country as the Bible dictated it best". Right now I'm in Oklahoma, one of the most conservative states in the Union. But that's beside the point. Yes, writing letters is one effective way of letting the government know that there are dissident opinions out there. But that's all you are if you're by yourself. In our American system, you effect change by gathering votes. Say you get ten thousand signatures of registered voters on an issue you want to get across to a state senator. If that senator is a true politician, then he or she won't be foolish enough to discard ten thousand votes. Of course, this is a lot of work. But effecting change takes work.
I'm not trying to absolve myself of blame, but on CNN *today* there is a story that in addition to the 300 or so votes Bush recieved in a particular precinct in Ohio, there were an ADDITIONAL NEARLY 4000 VOTES GRANTED TO HIM. The entire precinct only *had* 638 votes! How in the hell did he get 4000+ votes in a precinct that didn't even have 4000 *people*??? Answer, he didn't...because they used the electronic voting machines, that I protested, that thousands of OTHER people protested, that organizations legally protested, that they were sued to keep from using because of their inaccuracies...and the lawsuits were thrown out of court, by Republican judges. I'm just as perturbed about this as I was about the hanging chads in 2000. I was highly suspicious of electronic voting when it first got introduced. But our system is the way it is, even if it's not perfect.
As I said, I live in Texas, and I'm surrounded by these people...the absolute *worst* "Christianity" has to offer. I have seen a woman fire her housekeeper, a single woman with a disabled daughter, and no other means of income, for not being Christian./ With my own eyes. Yes, there are people who claim to be Christian who aren't Christians. But you've got to look past those people because they aren't representative of the whole.
The reality of the matter is, these people fully believe that they are the most persecuted people on the planet. And they take the reality and distort that to their own views, George W. Bush included...or perhaps, especially. People do have distorted views of their world. But it makes me laugh to read "Kerry supporters were living in the real world." Or to use hindsight to criticize our decision in Iraq. I'm fully aware that we went into Iraq for the oil, not for "humane" reasons or any other crap that the Bush administration spins. But what liberals have to realize is that Kerry failed to capitalize on that when he said, "Knowing what I know now, I still would have voted for the war in Iraq." Did the President mislead us, or was the President misled? I really don't have the answer to that question, but I've heard that things aren't always what they seem.
Now, while I will grant you that the left, especially here in Dallas, did a piss-poor job of reaching out to people, if you tell me I can't absolve myself of responsibility for the "elected" officials, even though I worked very hard this past two years to get them out of office, you damned sure can't absolve yourself if you voted for them. I'm not absolving myself of what's going to happen in the next four years. But it seems to me that we're in agreement here: the Left needs to change how it reaches out to people.
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Date: 2004-11-07 10:43 am (UTC)Right now I'm in Oklahoma, one of the most conservative states in the Union. But that's beside the point. Yes, writing letters is one effective way of letting the government know that there are dissident opinions out there. But that's all you are if you're by yourself. In our American system, you effect change by gathering votes. Say you get ten thousand signatures of registered voters on an issue you want to get across to a state senator. If that senator is a true politician, then he or she won't be foolish enough to discard ten thousand votes. Of course, this is a lot of work. But effecting change takes work.
I'm not trying to absolve myself of blame, but on CNN *today* there is a story that in addition to the 300 or so votes Bush recieved in a particular precinct in Ohio, there were an ADDITIONAL NEARLY 4000 VOTES GRANTED TO HIM. The entire precinct only *had* 638 votes! How in the hell did he get 4000+ votes in a precinct that didn't even have 4000 *people*??? Answer, he didn't...because they used the electronic voting machines, that I protested, that thousands of OTHER people protested, that organizations legally protested, that they were sued to keep from using because of their inaccuracies...and the lawsuits were thrown out of court, by Republican judges.
I'm just as perturbed about this as I was about the hanging chads in 2000. I was highly suspicious of electronic voting when it first got introduced. But our system is the way it is, even if it's not perfect.
As I said, I live in Texas, and I'm surrounded by these people...the absolute *worst* "Christianity" has to offer. I have seen a woman fire her housekeeper, a single woman with a disabled daughter, and no other means of income, for not being Christian./ With my own eyes.
Yes, there are people who claim to be Christian who aren't Christians. But you've got to look past those people because they aren't representative of the whole.
The reality of the matter is, these people fully believe that they are the most persecuted people on the planet. And they take the reality and distort that to their own views, George W. Bush included...or perhaps, especially.
People do have distorted views of their world. But it makes me laugh to read "Kerry supporters were living in the real world." Or to use hindsight to criticize our decision in Iraq. I'm fully aware that we went into Iraq for the oil, not for "humane" reasons or any other crap that the Bush administration spins. But what liberals have to realize is that Kerry failed to capitalize on that when he said, "Knowing what I know now, I still would have voted for the war in Iraq." Did the President mislead us, or was the President misled? I really don't have the answer to that question, but I've heard that things aren't always what they seem.
Now, while I will grant you that the left, especially here in Dallas, did a piss-poor job of reaching out to people, if you tell me I can't absolve myself of responsibility for the "elected" officials, even though I worked very hard this past two years to get them out of office, you damned sure can't absolve yourself if you voted for them.
I'm not absolving myself of what's going to happen in the next four years. But it seems to me that we're in agreement here: the Left needs to change how it reaches out to people.