we can not give up

Once again, the inspiration for this blog post came from a conversation with my sister.  We were talking about the influence Fox News and the right wing conservatives have on the voters.  As my sister pointed out, millions of dollars are constantly being poured in to advertising to promote a very specific message that appeals to a group of people who vote in every election.  Along with the money, there is also the problem of gerrymandering which is not a new issue but has certainly become more prevalent.  All of which seems to bode well for conservative Republicans and doom the Democrats.

But money cannot not vote.  Corporations cannot vote.  The 1% can not cast more votes than the 99%.  Yes, the corporations can try to persuade their workers and the conservative Christian preachers can often sway their parishioners.  But I still believe there are more people who oppose the policies of the Right Wing Republicans than support them.  The problem is that all those people do not always go out and vote.  The core voters in the Republican Party, the ones that will vote in every election, out-number those same voters in the Democratic Party.  Why?  The simple answer is that the Republicans are much better at getting out their message than the Democrats are at getting out their message.

The liberal groups on Facebook constantly post about what the Republicans are doing and how harmful their policies are.  But that didn't seem to matter enough to prevent Republican victories in the last election.  So what does matter?  When people choose to stay home rather than vote, they allow others to make choices for them.  Why do they choose to not vote?  Some people do not think their vote will matter, but it will, if only they would cast it.  If only they would add their votes to all the others who also believe their vote will not make a difference.

We are stronger when we stand together.  We can create change when we work together to make the change happen.  We can not and must not give up because that is what the conservatives and billionaires are counting on to happen.  They want us to believe that we are defeated.  They want us to believe that our votes do not count.  But the only way our votes will not count, the only way we will be unable to create the change we want, the change that is what our country needs, is if we stay home and do not vote!

Stand up, stand together, go to the polls, vote and with each vote we will echo the words of Abraham Lincoln "that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth."