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| A sentiment many of us should follow this year on Election Day |
I
MAY WELL go down the line and pick out a straight-ballot ticket. Even though
Illinois a couple of decades ago did away with the option of allowing for a
straight party-line vote with a single punch. An action, by the way, that was a
product of the two-year mid-1990s time period when Republicans had full control
of the mechanisms of Illinois government.
Yes,
I can appreciate the flaws of the eight years we had of Barack Obama (he wasn’t
tough enough in dealing with Republican ideologues who smacked him around all
over the place, even though GOP partisans want to believe he was somehow
running roughshod over everybody’s rights).
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| High-minded ideals … |
I’m
not an apologist for Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter – the two other Democrats to
serve as president in my lifetime. As for LBJ, I was just a newborn back when
he was the boss whose record of supporting civil rights reforms offended
conservative ideologues, and U.S. involvement in Vietnam managed to offend
everybody else.
But
I find the bullying nature of President Donald Trump to be so offensive that I
feel the need to take whatever ballot action I can to try to undermine it. And
realize fully that it will take a great majority of similar-minded voters to do
so in order to create a balancing presence within the federal government.
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| … and actions of the past, or … |
NOT
EVEN JUST a slim majority (remember the 3 million-plus more voters Hillary Clinton
had in ’16, yet still lost?). It will take many people expressing their outrage
at the ballot box.
Because
we really need to make a statement come Election Day that a real majority of
our society finds this Age of Trump to be downright appalling.
It
feeds into the ideologue mentality, which is that everybody who isn’t like them
ought to just “Shut the f*** up!!!” and do what we’re told by their like-minded
souls.
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| … more present-day thuggery? |
That
certainly is how I’m perceiving the actions of recent days during which
dangerous packages were sent to former presidents Clinton and Obama, one-time
Vice President Joe Biden and even actor Robert DiNiro – who has had the nerve
(as they want to perceive it) to express his own opposition.
THERE
EVEN WAS an incident Thursday where the Statehouse in Springfield was on “lockdown”
status – and a powdery substance in a baggie was found in a public restroom. Maybe
some crackpot who thinks he can hit the halls where Democrats led by Illinois
House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, do their work?
It
seems to be that the thugs of our society are crawling out of the woodwork to
try to terrify people into “voting the ‘right’ way” come Election Day.
And
many of those individuals are the ones who get all riled up every time Trump feels
compelled to talk up more trash. More “fake news” rants. In fact, I won’t be the
least bit surprised if someone feels compelled to respond to this commentary with
a ridiculous rant or two.
It
actually has me wondering what would happen if the 2020 election cycle were to
end with a Trump defeat in the Electoral College – would Trump try to concoct a
scheme by which he refuses to leave the White House, and his supporters would
mentally justify a coup d’etat on the grounds that we “need” The Donald to complete
the chaos he has wrought in recent years.
IT
WOULD CERTAINLY be in character with the kind of people who think the recent day’s
actions are in any way justifiable.
It
even fits in with the concepts being espoused by a new television spot funded
by a Ricketts family-funded political committee (Todd is, after all, a Republican National Committee finance chairman); one that says “voting for any
Democrat” will cause all kinds of chaos within our society.
But
when you’re an ideologue inclined to believe everybody not like yourself is
evil, then perhaps you’re willing to talk such trash. Which is something we all
ought to be opposing in coming days as Step One in making our nation truly
great again.
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