‘I didn’t know’ - A sorry excuse come election time.
We’ve all heard it. We ask someone why they didn’t vote in an election, whether it be a primary one or a general election, and people say something to the effect of “I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t know who the candidates were.”
“I never heard about it.”
“I didn’t know when it was.”
I’m sorry… but that just doesn’t cut it.
The City of Greensboro is having municipal elections this November and “I didn’t know” is a lame excuse when every blogger in Greensboro is covering it (here’s my example) and the News & Record has a whole section of their website devoted to everything having to do with the election - from candidate website links, to YouTube videos, to small stories recounting election conversations elsewhere on the web.
“I didn’t know” is a cop-out and code for “I’m too lazy to read, too lazy to care, too lazy to be American and too lazy to take part in just about the only way left for me to participate in my democracy.”
Technorati Tags: Greensboro, election, 2007
About the Author: Matt
3 Responses to “‘I didn’t know’ - A sorry excuse come election time.”
I pay attention and still have trouble getting politics right. It requires a curiosity if not a sense of duty, which is sadly lacking.
While others focus on baseball and racing, I’m following my fav sport.
By Fec Stench on Aug 29, 2007
Why the big pressure to vote - the bad guys always win? Even big unions, who for so long pushed for a big voter turnout are beginning to smarten up. Last year the AFL-CIO split, with half the membership forming the Change to Win Coalition, to divert union funds away from pointless support of Democratic hacks and into unionizing the unorganized. The big loser in this split will be the Democratic Party.
In politics the GOP, which once masqueraded as a centrist party, is now openly extremist and confrontational. Its theocratic leaders aim to end abortion rights, reimpose strict misogyny, reject science and scientific ethics, and terminate gay and lesbian struggles for equality. Their theocratic strategy is seditious and treacherously targeted at gutting the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.
For 8 years the GOP has lashed out at unions, environmentalists, women, civil libertarians, immigrants, minorities, and most often against our GLBT communities while the Democrats did nothing. Before the 2006 election the Democrats pledged to end the war, but their Congressional majorities have done nothing of the sort.
The Democrats are paying the price for decades of pretending to be the allies of working people, minorities, women, etc. They’re trapped between a rock and a hard place as growing political volatility makes it impossible for them to continue substituting promises and posturing for real world political results. For decades Democrats have stabbed voters in the back after reeling in their votes. Consummate frauds, at their core they’re just closeted Republicans.
The invasion and escalations in Iraq are the responsibility of a Republican administration and Congress with Democrat collusion, including that of Hillary Clinton.
A Democrat victory in 2008 is far from assured. They repeated the same mistake after the 2004 and 2006 elections and refused to take a stand for the immediate and total withdrawal of US troops. It’s the usual treachery and they excuse it by wailing that their hands are tied.
On August 22, 2007, a Gallup poll said that the Congressional approval rate is the lowest it’s been since 1974. Barely 18% approve of the actions of the Congress while 76% disapprove. The poll was taken from August 13-16, 2007. Even George Bush has a higher rating!
In reality, the two parties are mirror images of each other. Competing for the approval, money and power bestowed by the rich, they see eye to eye with them and with each another on key issues, disagreeing chiefly about which set of felons ought to hold office. Neither party is a barrier to attempts to impose theocracy to bolster the rule of the rich; in fact, both are integral to the process.
Democrats and Republicans are bitterly partisan and apt to adopt extreme measures to impose their views. Christian extremists whine about being persecuted and openly back unconstitutional, treasonable measures to establish a theocracy, while many politicians in both parties pander to them. When Pat Robertson says he wants to kill his enemies, he’s not just whistling Dixie, although that is his favorite song.
Help build and vote for the union backed and controlled US Labor Party.www.thelaborparty.org
By Bill Perdue, Rainbow on Aug 30, 2007