Matt wrote a song back in the, I don’t know, nineties called “Good Intentions” – I’m hoping to re-record it some day. Anyway, one of the lines went like this:
That son of a bitch with the backdrop and the gun
That son of a bitch with the gun
Well, I voted against, yes I voted against, yes I
voted against for all the poor
creatures of the world
Part of the reason why I’m thinking of this is the current Republican standoff over the Supreme Court vacancy … you know, their war against the U.S. Constitution which they claim so vehemently to revere. It is depressingly predictable that they would pull something like this, of course. Why not? We gave them power, after all; not by voting for them, perhaps, but by failing to vote against them. Matt was being sarcastic, of course, writing about people who think doing very little is doing enough. It certainly isn’t, but things like voting are the very least we can do, and they can make a difference. This is how.
If back in 2014 more of us had said “Damn the torpedoes, I am going to vote against those fuckers if it takes me all day,” Obama would have been able to send a nominee through a normal Senate review process. If we had kept the Senate out of the hands of the wrecking crew known as the GOP, we would likely have pulled the Supreme Court back from the extreme right for the first time in more than thirty years. Now that opportunity is completely up in the air. We don’t know what’s going to happen in November, but I can tell you what isn’t going to happen before then: a Supreme Court confirmation vote, that’s what.
Elections have consequences, it bears remembering. Reagan’s victory in 1980 certainly did, as did Nixon’s in 1968 and 1972. We are living with the fallout from those electoral failures, just as we now live with that of our most recent mid-term rout. Turnout in 2014 was remarkably low – that’s the essential ingredient in any Republican victory on a national basis. When we stay home and sit on our hands, government at every level becomes more tightly controlled by the wrecking crew. Regardless of how little faith you may have in the institutions of government, that prospect simply cannot seem to you like a good thing.
No matter who wins the Democratic nomination, nor who is running for office in your state or your congressional district. No matter how long the lines or how many hoops you have to jump through. No matter what, vote against the mothers.
Next week: Ted and Donny’s super excellent war on terror.
