[Politics] Hey, Tom!
Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060404/ap_on_el_ho/delay
4.04.2006
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5 comments:
The witch is dead! The witch is dead!
Well, ok, that's not quite true.
I envision the Republican party as a hydra. Cut off DeLay, here come more. The question is, who is our Heracles? In the story, to prevent the regrowth of severed heads it took teamwork and fire to cauterize the wounds...
Who's ready for a little mob justice?
We have at our disposal torches whose fire can burn away the heads of the hydra.
Those torches are called voting intelligently.
Throw the bums out.
My suspicion is that we'll be to busy starting ourselves on fire as a society to worry about the hydra.
We have no torches if voting intelligently is what is needed. Each of us is only 1 vote, which by itself cannot do much. We need to gather together, work hard to get others like us to vote, and work to get a message out to the ignorant masses. We need to contribute more than idle chat at a coffeehouse, but real action. Be involved in local politics, support (with time or money) causes that you feel are just and right. No money? Fine, volunteer. No time? Donate. No time or money? Well you can still help, wear a button, blog, discuss, use your imagination.
Simply voting is a start. Getting others to vote is an extension. Spreading the truth is ultimate.
The torches of voting intelligently only burn hot as a collective. Individually, yes, the effect I have as a voter is negligible. As a society, we can choose to not put up with the ignorance and corruption that have come to personify so much of our politics. Collectively, we should demand better representatives. If we voted for candidates who are intelligent, qualified, rational, compassionate, and useful, then I think we'd be a step closer to better government. (instead of voting for pseudomoral demagogues like Tom DeLay who got into politics to gut environmental regulation that annoyed him so much in his failing pesticide business) Only by removing these people from office can we start to get things going in the right direction, and criminal charges aside, that starts at the voting booth.
The positions of power will always invite abuse and cronyism (power being an end unto itself). Politics and electoral policies should have self correcting mechanisms and a balance of powers. I think that there is also an argument to be made for a different style of electoral politics than the idiot winner-take-all American system (parlimentary style systems, preferential balloting and proportional representation, for example). Our system seems to have lead to the inevitable outcome of a two party system in which the owners of wealth can manipulate both with nearly equal aplomb. This is especially easy when we allow money to flow in politics so freely. We must also demand a more informed electorate, lest all hope be lost.
We should demand better.
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