I didn’t throw my vote away!

 

It's that time of year.  I got my absentee ballot.

I'm proud to say I didn't throw my vote away.

Here were the choices for president . . .

1. A lying psychopath who takes special delight in murdering heads of state and innocent civilians, will start World War III, if that's what it takes to get her name writ large in the history books.
2. A lying sociopath with ADD and a penchant for locker room talk, who takes special delight in making racist threats against anyone who's not white, and moreover who can't put together a coherent sentence containing more than six words.
3. A clueless empty suit who apparently has modeled himself after Alfred E. Neuman, who thinks Aleppo is a blood disease which causes diarrhea in house pets, and the name of the leader of North Korea is Kim Buk Too.
4. An articulate medical doctor, peace and environmental activist, who has an inspiring and detailed plan for reducing poverty and wealth inequality, ending the unnecessary and destructive wars, addressing the mounting crisis of climate change, and restoring representative democracy and integrity to government.

Seriously?  There's a choice?

It reminds me of the time I was asked to appear on a TV game show.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Choose Well or Die, America's new giveaway fun fest, where some lucky guy gets a chance to go home with a new lease on life, or meet the Grim Reaper.  Tonight's first guest is John Rachel, itinerant blogger and novelist originally from Detroit, Michigan.  Welcome, John.  How are you feeling tonight?"

"Better than an Eskimo with a bikini wax."

"Sounds terrific, John.  So here are your choices.  Now take your time and think this over.  Would you rather . . ."

1. Have your eyes gouged out with red hot tire irons while the lower half of your body is immersed in a vat of pure hydrochloric acid?
2. Be anally raped by a buffalo while five rabid pit bulls rip your face apart?
3. Be skinned alive, then trampled to death by a stampeding herd of elephants?
4. Win $1 billion tax free, and be shuttled all over the world from your private tropical island in the South Pacific, in a luxurious 360-foot yacht with 24 of your closest friends and admirers?

"Hmm.  This is tougher than I thought.  Is that yacht eco-friendly?"

You get the idea.

 

Anyway, after thinking about it for less time than it takes Bruce Willis to comb his hair, here's how I marked my ballot. 

Did I throw my vote away?  I guess that depends on how you define "throw away".

I decided to vote on principle.  Somebody has to, because . . . eventually everyone must. 

It should never come down to what we are faced with this election, deciding between psychopathic Hillary or sociopathic Donald.  But it has.  I'm not sure which of them is worse.  It's too close to call.

I do know one thing.  If we play this game again this time . . . it'll be the same next time.  Maybe even worse, though that's hard to imagine.

What's the principle which defines my choice?

A vote is an endorsement.  Therefore . . .

I will not cast my vote for corruption; lying; wars; rampant corporatism; totalitarian rule by an oligarchy; wealth inequality; government by Wall Street, the too-big-to-fail banks, and transnationals; the destruction of democracy.  Both Clinton and Trump are all of that and more.  More of the slow, steady evisceration of what I once believed America stood for.

A vote is too precious to waste on criminals and narcissists.



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


I didn’t throw my vote away!

Absentee Democracy

 

There are always a few numbskulls who harass me with poorly constructed,
grammatically insulting rants about the fact that I have chosen to live
overseas.

They always say something like . . .

"What kind of American are you? YOU LIVE IN JAPAN!"

The answer that comes immediately to mind is . . .

"I'm the kind of American who lives in Japan."

I spent six decades growing up, living and working in America.

I have an American passport, therefore I'm an American citizen.

I pay taxes to the American government. Still! And by the way, America is 
the only country that DOUBLE TAXES their citizens who live overseas. 
I pay taxes to Japan and I pay taxes to America. Unheard of in the rest of 
the civilized world.

And frankly I have no problem with the half of my taxes that go toward
schools, education, building roads and bridges (which I no longer use),
helping those who have fallen on hard times __ e. g. unemployment
benefits, school lunch programs, Head Start, SNAP, heating assistance
subsidies __ and promoting R&D addressing health and environmental
issues.

But I DO HAVE A PROBLEM with the other half of the money they 
collect from me, which I have no say in. You know, the half of the federal 
budget that goes for the war machine we are building to take over the world, 
the money wasted on military misadventures, toppling democratically elected
foreign governments, drone murdering of innocent civilians, spying on
everyone with a pulse, wreaking havoc across the planet and creating far
more enemies than we kill, sending our best young people into battle to
protect the interests of already rich corporations. Yes, I do have a problem 
with paying those taxes. We all should.

But getting back to the xenophobic super-patriots . . .

Maybe these yokels are questioning my red-white-and-blue pedigree. Maybe 
they think somehow my all-American blood has become polluted and diluted
because I live in Japan and have a Japanese wife.

One variation of the attack is particularly amusing.

"Well, Mr. Hotshot Expat, do you vote?"

This is probably coming from someone who doesn't. But here's the skinny on 
that one.

Though I think our electoral system is corrupt, that at least at this point our
politicians are owned lock-stock-and-barrel by a tiny vainglorious and
filthy rich elite, that our two-party system is a joke and both Democrats 
and Republicans unwillingly or maybe willingly arepuppets to Wall Street 
banks and transnational corporations, that without serious immediate 
changes, democracy is effectively dead in America . . .

Though self-appointed, arrogant and misguided stewards of our electoral 
processhave disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters of color who they
have deemed unworthy of the constitutional right to have a voice in our
political system, though these exact same anti-democratic partisan
bullies have hacked up any prospect of proper representation through
gerrymandering and consigned voting to the irrelevancy of a video game
via rigged voting machines . . .

For those rubes that have never left Cottonwad County and can't find China 
on a map, one of the marvels of these amazing modern times is that you can
visit the Great Wall of China in the morning and vote in an American election 
in the afternoon. You can have breakfast at a cafe in Paris or Amsterdam or 
even Tokyo on your way to dropping off an election form at a foreign post 
office. It's called an absentee ballot. So the answer is . . .

Yes! I vote!



[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]