Aug 7

Citizenship Snobbery

Matthew: This is becoming a trend–we vote, and then we come to the bakery.
Me: Yeah, after voting, we need something to get the bitter taste out of our mouths.

NOTE: If you’re one of those people who just doesn’t vote because you’ll never make a difference, or votes without doing research, or “prefers solely to effect change upon the world with Reiki/etc.,” just go ahead and scroll past. It’s probably best you don’t tell me either, because I am a big ol’ citizen snob, and will most certainly think less of you.

I registered to vote at 8 a.m. on my eighteenth birthday. Before that, I stood in line at the polls with my Mom, and she would always explain her choices, and why we were out in the rain, or spending time in a fire station when it was perfect beach weather. My mom instilled a fierce patriotism in her daughter. She talked about civic duty and civil liberties, and made sure that I knew she deplored our older relatives’ racism. She carefully explained those 1980s Choose Life shirts were not about WHAM!

I am my mother’s daughter: she taught me to do some good, or do some damage if the occasion warranted it.

I know that Georgia was/is often just as crazy as Mississippi is, but honestly, it makes me heartsick that the majority of my choices in our primary were chosen because they didn’t quite piss me off as much as the others. I’m really dreading November, because no matter what, I’m stuck with a governor who makes my skin crawl.

For those of you who regularly vote/participate in activist movements, especially in movements/schools of thought that differ greatly from your current political climate: what do you do when you look at a ballot and it’s filled with Wicked, Worse, and Worst Of All? Do you vote for the least nasty of all bridge trolls? Do you skip voting for that particular office? Do you write-in NONE ACCEPTABLE (which I have done in a particular nasty case of Bigot vs. Shithead)? Do you say screw it, vote for the least repugnant of candidates, and then console yourself in liquor/sugar/self-righteous blog wank?

Well, I guess you know what I do.

P.S. If you’re one of the aforementioned people and still read this, GO REGISTER TO VOTE

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