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we shouldn't have to be in the position of fighting just to get an accurate vote. I don't might fighting for a candidate, based on that candidate's merits, but what we're facing is fighting for both our choice of who will represent us, and whether our votes will be accurately counted.
There is one thing that we can do, if we have the desire to abide by it. We can stop becoming distracted by the straw men, and false premises that the wealthy, and the corporate interests, throw in our path. When we talk about a living wage, one thing that is immediately tossed out, like a treat to distract a terrier, is the subject of immigration. The issue is for all workers to be paid a living wage. Instead of a serious discussion of that, we become distracted by illegal immigrants, and their effect of lowering wages. We turn on the immigrant, and the corporations which hire them continue without missing a beat.
They really don't care who is willing to work for 3-4 an hour. They don't care whether it's a worker from El Salvador, or Texas, or whichever state, as long as they can pay wages that won't support a single person for more than a few days. We don't focus on them, because we become engaged in becoming angry at the ones who cross our borders, and work for less than we are willing or able to. All they know, or care, is that they care hire immigrants for bottom wage, and if the Migra rounds up their workers, they are easily replaced.
How many wealthy, important business CEOs are currently incarcerated for hiring illegal aliens? They can construct a completely false image of the black "welfare queen", driving to pick up her generous checks in luxury cars, while in reality the majority of people getting public assistance are white. In the meantime, voters will push the lever for the men and women who promise "welfare reform", and people will vote for them, regardless of how many children suffer from hunger, or spend a large part of their childhoods living on the streets, in shelters, or in cars. The politicians can point with pride to eliminating "welfare fraud."
Oh, and one of my very favorites is "class warfare". I'll readily admit to waging class warfare, but remember, just as the ill-fated invasion of Iraq, the war was started by the very men and women who control almost every penny we workers create, and who dupe people into voting for people who will allow them to perpetuate their wars. They fight with modern weapons, while we try to fling pebbles, and they try to make us feel ashamed for fighting for crumbs from their tables.
As to the religious aspect of politics, I'll only say this...if any woman does not want an abortion, she is perfectly free to carry her baby to full term. She just shouldn't expect any help if she or her child needs something she can't provide herself. Gay marriage? Well, there are no laws making people marry somebody of the same sex, so why the need to legislate against it? War on religion? Nope, nothing keeps people from worshiping as they choose, it just keeps them from forcing others to adopt their beliefs.
So to me, a great-grandmother, and high school drop-out, while those in power distract we, the people, with religion, and class warfare, and trying to get a secure vote, those who have doomed so many more Americans to poverty in the last six years, those who have allowed the courts to be packed with men and women more suited to the 13th Century than the 21st, all I can say is, if enough of us can ignore those distractions for long enough, we might just wrest back control of our country, one we love, and one which you only pretend to love. And I'll admit that I will vote, write letters, make calls, and do everything in my power to restore the country our Founding Fathers tried to leave us.
I'll admit to class warfare. I won't shed a drop of blood, nor commit any act of violence, but I will vote, and donate whatever I can to politicians who will listen to the will of the people, and I will try to educate every person I can about who the real enemy of our country is. I'll tell you this, though, my enemy is not some elderly Iraqi great-grandmother, mourning the loss of one of her cherished grandchildren, just as I would mourn the loss of mine.
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