by Abe Haim
Dandelion Salad
Guest Writer
http://exiledfromnowhere.wordpress.com
Nov. 2, 2010
So, a Facebook friend posted on my “wall” to ask me if I’ll join him in “committing to vote?”
Well, the simple answer is no. I’ve been outside the States now for several months – so a bit tricky for me personally to vote this time. (Yes, I know I could have contacted a consulate and tried to get an absentee ballot sent or whatever, but I didn’t think it would be worth the hassle to do all that…)
But beyond my unique personal circumstances, I find this invitation quite objectionable. (I should clarify that I’m not wanting to single out the friend who posted this on my wall. I’m sure he means well, and it’s another FB “app” that’s been making the rounds. He likely didn’t even individually post it on my wall, the app probably lets you click a time or two to automatically post it on all your friends’ walls.) Yes, Facebook has lots of apps, and sometimes I even get something posted on my wall from Farmville or Petville or Mafia Wars or whatever. Those I usually just ignore…
But committing to vote…what’s wrong with that?
I actually usually do vote, even in those little elections in April that people usually ignore. This isn’t an anti-voting rant, though plenty of good stuff has been written making the case for the futility and/or counter-productiveness of voting. There are also good arguments on the other side.
Why do I (usually) vote? Well, a number of reasons, including: 1. so the pro-voting die-hards won’t be able to use it against me in an argument. 2. ballot issues – when an issue is directly voted on by the people, it can often make a real difference for the better…too bad we don’t have that at the national level! 3. local races -when you get down to the local level, such as city council, grassroots often outweighs the corporate interests, and there are often some good people to vote for. In the bigger races, I’ll sometimes vote for the “lesser evil,” and sometimes vote for a third-party candidate who usually doesn’t have much chance of winning, but at least that way I get to register the fact that I don’t like the R *or* the D.
But I’m not wanting to tell people to vote or not to vote, or even who to vote for or not vote for. I’m here to talk about this ribbon that appeared on my wall. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here it is:
Note that the “O” in “VOTE” is the Obama campaign logo. Now, are there really still people who would be encouraged to vote by that Obama logo?! Obama isn’t even up for election this year, so why is his logo on this campaign? Is that supposed to give me an extra warm and fuzzy feeling and help convince me to make it to my local polling place and mark my vote for every Democrat on the ballot?
I would have thought that even people far less radical than I am would by now forever associate that O logo with broken promises, with betrayal of all principles, and with hypocrisy in the extreme.
I mean come on folks, Bush may as well have had a third term! He’s continued the Wall Street bailouts, escalated the wars, and even taken Bush and Ashcroft’s attack on our civil liberties to a new extreme – the Obama administration now claims it has the right to murder U.S. citizens without trial if it considers them to be a “terrorist threat.” Let me repeat that – Obama is claiming the right to kill US citizens. No trial. No judge. No jury. Just murder. You might think I’m making this up, and believe me, I wish I was, but here it is – plain as day in the mainstream media:
Pres Obama Has A List Of Americans Targeted For Assassination
OPEN MIND | Mar 24, 2011
And yeah, I know, they claim it’s just for “terrorists,” and *for now* it will probably just be used against Muslims (“First they came for the…”), but ultimately they can claim anyone is a terrorist, and remember – there’s no due process whatsoever.
So, like I said I’m not gonna tell you whether or not to vote, or who to vote for…But please, for the love of God (or Gaia, or Humanism, or whatever the hell you believe in), wake the fuck up people!
And have a little consistency for crying out loud. If it was wrong for Bush to do it, then it’s just as wrong when Obama does it, and you should be just as outraged. Speak up, talk with your friends and family, raise some hell.
If you decide to vote for a corporate-puppet Democrat as a lesser evil, then tell everyone that’s what you’re doing and why.
But whoever you vote for (or don’t vote for), speak out the rest of the year, and pay attention to what’s really going on, and not to the propaganda circus! Let everyone know that even if you voted for Obama that you don’t support most of his agenda.
On election day you get to make what’s usually a very limited choice that probably doesn’t reflect how you really feel. But every other day of the year you can speak out and let everyone know exactly how you feel. So please people, make your voices heard all year long…and no more Obama-O’s!
see
Voting “with our Backsides”. This November’s Election of a New Congress by Michael Hudson
Rove’s Vote Trickster: Caging Explained by Greg Palast
The Phantom Left by Chris Hedges
Paul Jay: How Dems Allowed the Tea Party to Rebrand the GOP
US: myth of the two party system by Cindy Sheehan
The Punk Patriot: VOTE! …or “Solidarity 2.0″
Why Should I Vote? By Timothy V. Gatto + Bob Avakian: The ‘voting trap’ under capitalism
The Goal of Modern Propaganda: Mythocracy + Presidential Assassination Program by Cindy Sheehan
Dandelion Salad 
right on abe !