Did “You” Show Up?
Posted by Michelle Moquin on 3rd November 2010
First of all, thanks to all of you who showed up at the polls and voted yesterday!
And thanks to all of you who took the time and volunteered for weeks and months or even a day or an hour. You made a difference. Thank you for voting and for getting the vote out because you wanted stand by our president and the Democratic party, in support of all that got accomplished, and the plans, and the promise of more…for at least the next two years.
Second, I want to especially thank my mother, who ever since I suggested that she get involved, she has been volunteering her time to the Democratic party making phone calls and attending rally’s at least 2-3 times per week.
A few weeks ago I asked her if she enjoyed making those phone calls. My mother told me that she “hated” it. This surprised me because my mother is a very social talkative woman who loves connecting with people. However I found out the reason why she “hated” it was because in the numerous of phone calls that she made she rarely got to talk to someone live on the phone.
But my mother, in spite of her “hating” it, she continued to do it for many weeks, knowing that she was doing something good…knowing that her involvement was making a difference, not necessarily for her future but for the future of those who would be around much longer than herself. I was so proud of her.
I wished at that moment that others would do something and in spite of what they felt, in spite of hating it like my mother, they continued to do it for the greater good. We all have things that we don’t like to do in life but many times the results we achieve…the blessings…the gifts we give, are worth it.
When I called my mother last night, she had been at the Democratic headquarters in Marin since 11:00 am that morning and had just gotten home at 9:00 pm that night. She had been making phone calls all day. And she had loved it. My mother, who doesn’t own a computer loved the system of making calls from the computer. She had learned something new and she was delighted.
The energy was of course different than most of the other days that she was phone banking. And now with so much action and a celebratory vibe, she was in her element. She loved the comaradderie that she felt amongst a crowd that had a common purpose. When I spoke with her, in spite of our big lose in the House, she was on a natural high…her peeps were winning. :)
I told my mother how grateful I was that she had put so much time into this election…and she thanked me for lighting the fire.
Now…to those that didn’t go out and vote, and I seriously doubt it was my readers but I will express my two anyway. I am holding those who didn’t vote responsible if our country goes in “R“everse leading us to hell in the proverbial hand basket. Yes, I’m blaming the “Eh! Why bother? Dems” who decided not to bother showing up.
What is it with the Dems? It’s really that simple: Support your fellow Dems and Just show up! The Republicans will always support each other…they will always stick together…and most likely, they will always lie, cheat, and steal their way to success if they can. And if they can, they will. All the Dems had to do was show up and vote. Simple. And we could’ve kept the majority in the Senate and the House once again. But no…they decided to sit this one out, probably so they can bitch and moan about all that’s not getting done later on.
This was my experience yesterday that left me quite enlightened: I went to the bank yesterday afternoon and asked the teller if he had voted yet. He was a young man, and he said no, he wasn’t going to vote. I asked him what party he was with and when he responded “I am a Democrat”, I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me? And you’re not voting?” We exchanged a few more words. And then I handed him my cheat sheet list of who and what to vote for, and made him copy it off and promise that he would go to the polls after he got off work. He was grateful and said that if it were not for me he would not have voted. He walked away to make his copy.
In the mean time, a woman was waiting to speak to this particular teller and I asked her if she had voted yet. She also informed me that she was not planning on voting. (!) She was also a Democrat. I’m sure there was a look of shock on my face, (again!). I thought, “This is unbelievable.” Then the teller came back out and I asked him to please make another copy for this woman. He smiled, turned around and left again. He came back a moment later and handed her my cheat sheet. They were both grateful and I made them promise me that they would vote. Promises were made, but were they held?
I left the bank feeling less hopeful of the outcome of this election. I had asked two people about voting and both were not planning to go to the polls and vote. And I thought to myself, “If this was happening to me here, this is probably happening all over the country.” I felt sick to my stomach.
People who live here couldn’t even motivate themselves to got to their polling place. Doug has been working out of town for the last few days. He left his job and drove for three hours just to get back home in time to vote before the polls closed. Distance wasn’t going to prevent him from exercising his right to vote, yet people living here were too lazy to go 5 minutes down the street to exercise their right.
There was no excuse not to show up. It is such a privilege to have a voice…it is such a freedom to be able to express our choices…it is so easy for us to exercise our rights…it is so simple to just show up when asked. “Give a shit!”, is what I say. - stop asking for others to do it for you so that you can bitch when it doesn’t get done! Ugh! It seems to me that some people would rather be lazy so they can have something to bitch about later. How illogical is that?!
I am dumbfounded by the stupidity of the Democrats. “Wussies!”, I heard someone say last night about the Dems. Oh how I dislike that, but it is hard to disagree.
Maddow showed us just what has been accomplished in the last 21 months. More has been accomplished in 21 months than any other past president, even in spite of the party of no Republicans. Hell…even the weather was great thanks to Madaline. I’m disappointed and quite frankly, a little pissed off. And no doubt Maddie is too. She worked her ass off.
If the Dems had just shown up…if the Dems had been team players. – This was a team effort and half of the team decided not to show up.
Oh well…
..it could’ve been worse. At least we still have the majority in the Senate, even if we lost seats in the House. Goodbye Nancy Pelosi. Hello John Boehner. “I’ll never let you down,” said House Republican leader John Boehner. All I can say is, with the Republicans in control of the House, it will be very interesting to see how much will actually get accomplished over the next two years. Will the economy turn around or will it get worse? Are we in a gridlock? Their sweep of the House could be a blessing in disguise if the Republicans don’t accomplish what they say they are going to do…if they don’t keep the promises they are making. Oh…And that’s the downside too.
In the mean time, we got the best results we could get considering who actually showed up at the polls. We have made our bed, and now we will have to sleep in it. As Madaline says, “Let them suffer for the next two years.”
Oh I HOPE not, but I guess we’ll just have to see how it all plays out, work on what we can, and HOPE for the best. And HOPEfully learn from this. How much change occurs or doesn’t occur because of the shift of the balance of power, will show us just how important the outcome of these midterm elections were, when it comes to how it will affect the 2012 Presidential election. The next two years will certainly be interesting to say the least.
Readers: There is so much more to say about the outcome of this election (Propositions, and I’m so bummed about Alan Grayson, but of course delighted over Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown, not to mention the downfall of O’Donnell and Angle., etc.) and answering questions such as “How did this happen?”, and “Why did it go this way?”, taking so much more into consideration than just the fact that the Dems didn’t show up. The voters voted they way they did for so many reasons. I’m done for the day, but I’d love to hear your take on all of this. The blog is open (hopefully). Comments? Thoughts? Blog me.
Peace out…
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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