It’s that time of year. I got my absentee ballot.
I’m proud to say I didn’t throw my vote away.
Here were the choices for president . . .
- A lying psychopath who takes special delight in murdering heads of state and innocent civilians, will start World War III, if that’s what it takes to get her name writ large in the history books.
- A lying sociopath with ADD and a penchant for locker room talk, who takes special delight in making racist threats against anyone who’s not white, and moreover who can’t put together a coherent sentence containing more than six words.
- A clueless empty suit who apparently has modeled himself after Alfred E. Neuman, who thinks Aleppo is a blood disease which causes diarrhea in house pets, and the name of the leader of North Korea is Kim Buk Too.
- An articulate medical doctor, peace and environmental activist, who has an inspiring and detailed plan for reducing poverty and wealth inequality, ending the unnecessary and destructive wars, addressing the mounting crisis of climate change, and restoring representative democracy and integrity to government.
Seriously? There’s a choice?
It reminds me of the time I was asked to appear on a TV game show.
“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Choose Well or Die, America’s new giveaway fun fest, where some lucky guy gets a chance to go home with a new lease on life, or meet the Grim Reaper. Tonight’s first guest is John Rachel, itinerant blogger and novelist originally from Detroit, Michigan. Welcome, John. How are you feeling tonight?”
“Better than an Eskimo with a bikini wax.”
“Sounds terrific, John. So here are your choices. Now take your time and think this over. Would you rather . . .”
- Have your eyes gouged out with red hot tire irons while the lower half of your body is immersed in a vat of pure hydrochloric acid?
- Be anally raped by a buffalo while five rabid pit bulls rip your face apart?
- Be skinned alive, then trampled to death by a stampeding herd of elephants?
- Win $1 billion tax free, and be shuttled all over the world from your private tropical island in the South Pacific, in a luxurious 360-foot yacht with 24 of your closest friends and admirers?
“Hmm. This is tougher than I thought. Is that yacht eco-friendly?”
You get the idea.
Anyway, after thinking about it for less time than it takes Bruce Willis to comb his hair, here’s how I marked my ballot.
Did I throw my vote away? I guess that depends on how you define “throw away”.
I decided to vote on principle. Somebody has to, because . . . eventually everyone must.
It should never come down to what we are faced with this election, deciding between psychopathic Hillary or sociopathic Donald. But it has. I’m not sure which of them is worse. It’s too close to call.
I do know one thing. If we play this game again this time . . . it’ll be the same next time. Maybe even worse, though that’s hard to imagine.
What’s the principle which defines my choice?
A vote is an endorsement. Therefore . . .
I will not cast my vote for corruption; lying; wars; rampant corporatism; totalitarian rule by an oligarchy; wealth inequality; government by Wall Street, the too-big-to-fail banks, and transnationals; the destruction of democracy. Both Clinton and Trump are all of that and more. More of the slow, steady evisceration of what I once believed America stood for.
A vote is too precious to waste on criminals and narcissists.
