If You Do Nothing Else Tuesday...

...go vote.

I've got my voter card in my purse and ready to go- proudly red ink stamped "democrat".

This is handy since not only do I actually vote democrat, but in elections where you must choose a straight party line, there IS no line in small-town East Texas for democrats. I AM the line and breeze right by all those republicans lined up out the door.

I remember going to the voting booth with my parents and getting to pull the levers on the big gray machine- the final red one opening the curtain and clearing out the votes with a metallic "swish".

I remember taking my kids to stand in line to vote, up to and including our youngest, who is handy at helping me remember how to work the newfangled faux computer voting machine.

I remember to vote. Every single election.

Because just one vote does make a difference.

Everyone gets one vote and each vote counts and matters. When we cease to believe that or become too busy or too lazy or too apathetic to haul our butts to the polling place and take five freakin' minutes out of our day to vote is when we lose more than elections, or majorities in Washington DC, we lose by abdication our right to any bitching whatsoever about the government in office.

I get so tired of people not just complaining, but getting downright aggressive about what they hate about the current administration, yet when asked if they voted, they say "No- I don't vote- it's depressing and one vote doesn't matter".

Really.

The way it's SUPPOSED to work is
-everyone over the age of 18 votes. In every election.
-the winners make the laws and whatnot for the next few years
-winners are elected by majority vote, so once elected everyone gets behind the winners because we're a "majority rule" kinda nation
-if this time's winners clearly suck at leadership and/or listening to their constituents, they get voted out the next election

The way it SEEMS to work is
-only really old or really fanatical people vote because they're the ones who make the time to do it
-the winners kiss as much lobbyist ass as they can while in office
-if your candidate doesn't win, it's assumed that there was corruption and cheating at the polling place, so "that other guy" didn't really win at all
-all the people from the losing side (including the candidates) whine and scream about the country being brought to quick and burning ruin by the winning parties with no chance of survival

Shut up.

Tomorrow is Tuesday- I'm voting democrat because I believe that's the right thing to do for my family and my country. If moderate republicans regain the majority I'll try to get behind them and hope they do the right and just things not just for themselves, but for their (and our) country.

If the Tea Party candidates are elected into office, we're all in deep shit.

Including, and perhaps mostly, the tea partiers, who, for some reason, fail to see that if they succeed in stripping the government bare of all 'socialist intrusive programs', none of their social security or VA checks will be in the mail next month.

The Tea Party thinks they're a powerful grassroots movement, blazing a path back to how America was founded. I hope the rest of us see that they're funded by the very people they claim to hate, and those very people will happily and gleefully chew up the tea partiers and spit them out...first.

So if you do nothing else Tuesday- go vote.

Vote thoughtfully.
Vote passionately.

Vote against insanity and ignorance.
Vote against the Tea Party.