A Modest Proposal: Require all Americans to Vote, Read Plato, and Read Mark Twain.

America has a dismal record when it comes to voting. It also has turned into an Oligarchy, in which the politicians are bought and sold by rich motherf***ers (since there aren’t enough votes to get their attention). This is not a coincidence. When most Americans don’t vote, we get liars, crooks and con artists “elected” via bribes and propaganda to be our “public servants”.

So mandatory voting would at least get more of our citizens to show up and vote (maybe charge them a fee on their taxes if they don’t). And that in and of itself would be a benefit, even if the new voters just vote randomly: it would scare the crap out of our “representatives” and the 1%-ers who own them. But to get maximum benefit, it would be better if people understood just what and who the Hell they are voting for, and (most importantly) why they should question everything a candidate or government says.

One example: a popular bit of Plato, currently winging its way about the Intertubez:

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

This is not the exact wording (he wrote, “But the chief penalty [of good men who refuse to lead] is to be governed by someone worse if a man will not himself hold office and rule.” [Republic, Book I, line 347c]) but it captures the essence.

In other words: we wind up with crooks, fools, and a**holes in government when the competent, intelligent and decent people refuse to run and/or vote.

Another couple of examples:

In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing. – Autobiography of Mark Twain.

Sounds a lot like the crap we hear from Teabaggers and such, does it not? Willful ignorance, regarded as a virtue rather than a vice. Here’s one example: James Inhofe http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inhofe-an-epa-foe-likely-to-lead-senate-environment-committee/2014/11/05/d0b4221e-64f4-11e4-836c-83bc4f26eb67_story.html
And:

“To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals.” – Mark Twain’s Autobiography

This writer would prefer that it say “a party” rather than “one party”, but that’s just me.

That is wisdom, Gentle Reader, spanning thousands of years, and speaking a truth we most sorely need to hear: if you let parties and plutocrats run things, they’ll run things to suit themselves. Which they have done. Those of us who do not participate in politics will NOT get the government we want: we’ll get the government THEY want.

Everybody needs education. Everybody needs motivation. This modest, if cynical, proposal can help empower our people and repair our democracy, at a very low cost. It’s kind of hard to think of anybody who’d object to that, right? Ermmmm….well…the bastards who have stolen our country will most certainly object. But f*** those people.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The Only Questions that Matter Today: Could You Vote, and Did You Vote?

Everything else is a bunch of irrelevant details, or an excuse. If you could have voted and did not, then you suck at being a citizen.

If you are voting or have voted, thank you! Feel free to ignore the rest of this post.

If you couldn’t vote, you should find out why, and then work to clear any roadblocks so you can vote in the future. Perhaps you’re too young, not a citizen, or prevented by other legal reasons; nobody can get on your case for that. Or perhaps you couldn’t vote because of GOPee criminal actions that disenfranchised you: you’re pretty much blameless there. too. Maybe you’re sick, or out of the country, or had some other obstacle in your path. Understandable.

But if you COULD have voted today, and CHOSE not to do so, f*** you. F*** you for being lazy, being cynical, being stupid, or being oh-so-superior. The only way we can win a f***ing election is if we turn out. And when people don’t turn out, we get whatever a**holes the 1% wish to cram down our throats. By not voting, you bear partial responsiblity for the Teapublican Takeover of our nation. F*** you for that, you stupid, f***ing f***.

Turnout is the ONLY tool left in our kit, the ONLY weapon in our arsenal. Turnout, and ONLY turnout can defeat voting machine hacks, disenfranchisement schemes, poll-rigging, disinformation and propaganda. Every other means of ensuring our representation is already gone, stolen by the corrupt motherf***ers who have hijacked our nation. THE ONLY WAY TO DEFEAT THE “REPUBLICANS” IS FOR EVERYONE ELSE TO VOTE AGAINST THEIR CORRUPT A**ES.

A few other factual points:
Number A: the two parties are NOT THE F***ING SAME. Stop with that f***ing lying bull-f***ing-s***.
Letter 2: Dem voters outnumber Repub voters overall. If Dem voters vote Dem, we win. If Dem voters don’t vote Dem, we lose.
Thirdly: If you aren’t voting, you aren’t using your Constitutional rights.
Fact the Fourth: You can vote Dem, or Repub, or for some idiot third-party yahoo who is there to help Repubs steal Dem votes. Only by casting votes for Democrats do we beat “Republicans”.

It’s math, period. Pound all the other hifalutin philosophical bilge right up your own a** along with a heaping helping of sand. More votes win. Fewer votes lose. Math.

Ohio flipped from Purple to Red because of fewer votes that can be counted with your shirt, pants and socks on. Less than ten votes in one district did the trick. So don’t tell this writer that your vote is of no consequence: women, children, and every taxpayer in the state are suffering because a few f***ing Dem voters did not vote for a single Ohio Democratic candidate in 2012.

Once again: If you can vote, PLEASE do so. If you choose not to and you could have, f*** you and the high f***ing horse you f***ing rode the f*** in on.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

“Republicans” Can Only Win with Democrats’ Help.

According to a recent poll, Ohio’s GOPee Guv John Kasich has a large number of Democrats voting for him. The percentage of such idiot voters is sufficient to provide a comfortable margin of victory. Thousands of Dems have said that they will vote for a thieving, lying, union-busting, woman-hating Wall Street motherf***ing “Republican”.

By so doing, those Dems will enable thievery, lying, starvation, forced births, pollution, contract violations, voter suppression, and income inequality to not only continue, but become even more prevalent. Think about that for a second, Gentle Reader. These are Teapublican values and policies, being supported by alleged Dem Voters.

This is the story of the 2014 midterms, friends: in spite of every evil deed, every crime against humanity, GOP candidates are projected to win. Why? Because a s***load of voters who should know better will make some truly stupid choices.

Stupid choices like voting for Teapubbies, casting protest votes in close races, or just not voting at all. That is how “Republicans” win. It ain’t just vote-rigging, corruption and bribery that enables the Repub Reign of Error: some Democrats are partially culpable.

Please do your part: vote smart. If enough people do so, we can pull off an upset. Smart rarely triumphs over stupid, but it can happen, if enough smart people take the time to vote smart.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Teapublican Obstruction leads to Fewer Millennial Voters. Was that Planned?

It’s a fair question. Did Boehner and McConnell and all the other Kochsuckers work to cut down on Democratic voter turnout at the same time they stuck it to the Prexy all these years? It’s one way to interpret those falling numbers of Millennial voters:

And for a while, it didn’t look like millennials would need much convincing. As more members of this generation reached voting age, participation among young voters rose. The peak year was 2008 (52 percent). In 2012, the turnout among voters 18-29 dropped to 45 percent.

On top of that, the rate of voters under 30 who could say with certainty that they were registered to vote fell steadily after 2008, according to the Pew Research Center. By 2012, it hit 50 percent — the lowest number Pew has recorded going back as far as 1996.

Ashley Spillane, the president of Rock the Vote, says it’s no mystery why millennials, or any voters, would be turned off from the process: “Politics right now is really disheartening. I think it’s why you see in the polls that young people are not affiliating with political parties.”

Think about it for a second: right before the “Republicans” started their “f*** Obama and the voters he rode in on” campaign, youth voting numbers were frickin’ huge, because the kids believed change was possible. But after 6 years of deliberate Teabagger destruction of change, the youth of America are disillusioned and are disengaging. And Millennials tend to vote for Dems.

Coincidence? In these times? Yeah, right. There is no way to prove it, of course, but in the end it doesn’t really matter whether or not the GOP has been manipulating Millennials on purpose or just enjoying a fringe benefit of their racist, treasonous, corrupt plan to seize power.

It doesn’t matter for two reasons:
Number A: it is wrong to suppress votes, whether it is a primary or secondary goal, and
Letter 2: the way to fight back is to defy expectations, by voting.

Millennials, wake up: you have been played. Strike back by voting against every Repub in every race, every ballot, every election. Vote to show them you are smarter than they think you are. Vote, because they don’t want you to.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Hong Kong Citizens Lose Voting Rights and Protest. Ohio Citizens Lose Voting Rights and Yawn.

These pictures show us what an engaged citizenry looks like:

Communist China is violating the law by taking away part of the power of the Hong Kong electorate. As this article explains:

The unrest began Sept. 22 with a call from the Hong Kong Federation of Students to boycott classes in protest of the government’s plan to limit candidates in Hong Kong’s first leadership election, slated for 2017, to those approved by a panel of presumed Beijing loyalists. The decision was widely viewed as a sharp reversal of a long-held promise to allow Hong Kong voters to select a new leader in open, democratic elections.

In other words, the locals have not lost the right to vote, but they have lost the right to any meaningfulvote. So they got angry, took to the streets, and remain there at the time of this writing.

Your humble correspondent tried to find pictures of Ohio voters rioting after the Supremes took away parts of their voting rights. But there are no such pictures, because there have been no protests. Americans as a whole have become conditioned to just roll over and take it whenever the government takes away their rights. Bloody pathetic.

When the history of our time is written, will we be remembered as active citizens of a democracy? Or will we be remembered as a load of lazy, disengaged, deluded fools who let our Constitutional rights be stolen from us without so much as a whimper?

The answer to that question, Gentle Reader, is (for the moment) up to us. Get out and vote. Make some noise. Do it while you still can.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Want to change things? Ferguson shows us the way: VOTE, God-F***ing-Dammit.

We won’t get change by rioting. Nor by shooting unarmed citizens. Those are both s***ty ideas. Instead let’s look at one of the first actions taken after the deplorable murder of Mr. Michael Brown: a voter-registration tent.

Yes, that is correct. The majority of Ferguson is black, but due to various disenfranchisement measures, only 12% of that community votes. On the other hand, lots and lots of white people vote, so guess who gets represented in city government? Yep, the people who vote.

That being the case, people are registering black voters (and anyone else too, of course) in order to use the ballot box to change how things are done in that town. If enough of the majority residents of Ferguson turn out and vote, they can get a government that actually represents, you know, the majority of the people. The way democracy is SUPPOSED to work.

The response to these voter registration efforts has been sadly predictable: racist Repubs hate it, and everybody else supports it. Repubs as a rule oppose increasing the voter pool, because they know it doesn’t work for them: higher turnout favors Dems.

We all need to do what people in Ferguson are doing: register to vote, and then vote. Use our power to get the government we want and deserve.

Register. Vote. Every election, every year.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Voter Suppression = Taxation Without Representation

Once again, your Cranky Correspondent has found a brilliant bit of writing (not, alas, his own) to share with you:

Perry, Abbott, McCrory, Walker, Scott and others want to create a permanent non-voting class of Americans. Americans who are expected to pay taxes, but to have no say in how the government uses those taxes. This includes African Americans, students, the elderly, women….and in the case of Texas they have admitted to preventing Democrats from voting. They want all of these people to have no say in how the country/state/county/city is run or who it is run by.The GOP is operating as a voting death panel.

Pay your taxes but never vote.

Isn’t that Taxation without Representation?

I say it’s time for legislation that says if your vote is suppressed – you don’t have to pay any taxes.

Is that brilliant or what? Spread this far and wide: the author is not asking for attribution (a damned shame, because this is f***ing brilliant). Spread it around so people understand that an assault on voting rights is an assault upon our very system of government itself.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Lying Sack of S*** of The Week: Reince Priebus

The man must think we don’t have an Internet. “Republican” National Committee chair Reince Priebus would have you believe that he is appalled, just appalled with the notion of self-deportation, oh yes, how very appalled indeed. Click the link to see how appalled he claims to be. There is just one little problem: he signed off on the concept in the latest “Republican” party platform. Whoops.

He can call self-deportation all kinds of nasty names, but he himself blessed this plank:

“”We will create humane procedures to encourage illegal aliens to return home voluntarily, while enforcing the law against those who overstay their visas.”

That is to say, have people choose to deport themselves. Or, put another way, self-deportation.

Hey, RNC Reince: I’d be appalled to tell you to “wear s*** on your head”; so here is a Crown O’ Polished Turds for you. See, totally different, right?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Why did Almost Every Senate “Republican” Crap on Bob Dole?

Recently, Repubs in the United States Senate voted down a bill that would guarantee equal rights for disabled people, internationally and nationally. Present and accounted for on the Senate floor was former Senator Bob Dole, who was greeted politely to his face and then stabbed viciously in the back by a whole pile of “Republicans” (you know, people from his own party) who shat all over a treaty negotiated by another of their own – Gee Dubya Bush. Why did this happen?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky has an idea: Bob Dole is a disabled war veteran (he got machine-gunned nearly to death during WW II); an honorable man; a productive legislator; someone who respected those with whom he disagreed; and above all, a patriot. Everything, in short, that the modern “Republican” party no longer believes in or represents. Bob Dole is not “one of them”.

And if you’re not one of them, you’re the enemy.  That, if you like, is partisan politics today, Elephant Style (feel free to steal this phrase and do a Gangnam Style parody).

For a man like that to be treated so is not just disgusting; it shows that the modern “Republican” party is, at its core, un-American. Think about it: what is more American than showing respect for a man who nearly died fighting for our country?

And is there anything less American than telling that man that he does not deserve to be treated as a full citizen of the country he almost died for?

Mr. B & C

How to Turn the Inevitable into Evitable

As Mr. Blunt and Cranky has been ranting all week, we in America are in danger of a revolutionary civil war so horrifying, it would put Edgar Allen Poe off his lunch.  Said conflict seeming inevitable due to the determined lack of action amongst America’s new (and not entirely Constitutional) ruling class of Politicians, Plutocrats and Pundits (three buckets of Pee running the country. And we wonder why things stink).

There are things we, the citizens of the United States can do to make this an “evitable” conflict. Simple things that require us to open our hearts and minds, work together, and stick to our task. Things that, alas, we have not been doing of late:

Thing Number A: Recognize that we are being played. Taken for a ride. Conned. Used like a crack whore at a biker party. Yep, that’s America in 2012: the Three Pees have been doing all that and more to us for decades now, and until we admit it to ourselves, we cannot do anything about it. Our media is largely comprised of biased, fact-challenged profit-centered pundits, and far too many of us listen and believe without question. Our employers are piling up cash that they have removed from our paychecks, pensions and benefits. Our elected “representatives” are mostly bought-and-paid-for tools of whichever lobbyist has the biggest wads of cash.  All of these people are screwing us, laughing behind their faces the while.

Almost NONE of our major institutions currently have the best interests of the American People at heart. Until you accept this reality, you are trapped.

Thing Letter Two: Money has infiltrated and corrupted virtually every institution in America. That means only people with money get what they want. And since most of us don’t have lots of money, the majority of taxpaying Americans get bupkis for our contributions to the system. We need to yank the snouts of our Politicos out of the money troughs in which they currently grunt and snuffle. We need to demand that our media give us fact-based news coverage by taking away the profit motive that currently drives the “content” we are being fed. We need to insist that people earn a living wage: that alone could take a big bite out of the deficit, as well as helping to stabilize our society.

Thing The Third: Hold our “Representatives” to account. Currently, we keep re-electing these slimeballs regardless of how corrupt they are, how they screw us, and how little they accomplish. If the electorate would simply vote out the worst of the bunch, that would help “induce” the remainder to, you know, actually work for us for a change.

None of the above ideas is rocket science; in fact, they are not original. They are things we all say we should be doing. But we haven’t been doing them, and since we have been lazy, things are rapidly heading towards an increasingly bleak and potentially nation-wrecking crisis. But if we actually do the needful, we can turn that “inevitable” cataclysm into a renewed, strong, peaceful and prosperous nation.

Mr. B & C