Government sucks but you don’t vote? You’re part of the problem.
Bill Maher explains it well here, and with jokes.
Upon learning that his home state of South Carolina would be forced to allow gays and lesbians to marry, Senator Lindsay Graham waved his hands before his face, said “Goodness gracious me! I think I have the vapors!” and then fainted. He suffered minor injuries as he hit his head on the closet in which he resides. 
For the rest of us, it was a day of cheering, as yet another federal court has ruled in favor of equality, leaving just the one that decided that no, the Constitution doesn’t say what every single other federal judge in the entire country has said it says.
The South Carolina Attorney General vowed to appeal to the 4th Circuit Court — the same Circuit Court that has already ruled in favor of gay marriage not too long ago. In other words, Republicans once again will be using taxpayer money to fight another futile battle against equal rights, because Jeebus. Or something. (Certainly not the law.)
The latest outrage consists of making fun of Obama for wearing silly clothes at a recent summit in China, as you can see from this meme polluting the right-wing blogosphere.
I suppose I don’t have to point out that every other foreign leader was wearing the same thing, including Vladimir Putin, do I? And that every President before Obama wore similar garb?
Heh! It’s funny because the implication is that facts matter to these people.
What’s even funnier are the comments about the incident, which once more include two completely contradictory themes:
“We hate China! We should not be beholden to them. America needs to assert itself. The President should not bow down to China.”
and
“Hey, look! Obama looks real unhappy dressing in the traditional clothes they make them all wear at these things! And he was chewing gum when he arrived! How dare he not show proper deference to China!”
At least they are consistent in their beliefs. No matter what Obama does, they hate it.
It seems strange to me that I have to defend voting against people who argue with a straight face that you shouldn’t — either because “your vote doesn’t matter” or “no one represents me”.
Trust me — your vote matters. That’s why they spend so much money trying to get it. That’s why Republicans try so hard to keep Democrats from voting.
And there are good candidates out there. Quite often they don’t make it past the primaries because people don’t vote. People don’t pay attention. They don’t get involved; they don’t read about the elections, and then when the election rolls around, they say “Hey, no one represents me” — which might not have happened had they done something about it.
I am involved in my local party. I go to meetings, I encourage candidates to run, and I’ve even run for a minor office myself (and won). I read about politics, I write about politics, and I contribute to politicians I like. And I vote. And because of this, I have a say in who these candidates are. I can affect the results.
Complaining that no one represents you in an election when you are doing absolutely nothing to change that seems like whining to me. And you know you’re going to end up with one of them, so at least vote for the lesser of the two. Surely one represents your views better than the other one.
Democracy means we are the government. We, the people. We have a say in what our government does. The candidates answer to us, not the other way around. They represent us. They are not the government, we are.
If you don’t participate, then they ignore you. And then you get what you deserve.
The people who do vote (which are pretty much always Republicans) win elections, and then the stupid Democrats think “Guess we should be more like Republicans” and move to the right. Whereas if we voted in the same number as Republicans, we would win many of the elections and no one would be saying that. But because we stay at home, our candidates lose. So what do their campaign managers say then? “We need to appeal to those people who do vote, not those who sit at home and complain without doing anything.”
It’s not going to change from the top. It has to change from us at the bottom. And complaining without action changes nothing.
A three panel federal court upheld anti-gay marriage laws yesterday. Two Bush-appointed judges ruled that, despite the precedents set by the US Supreme Court and every single other federal court that has ruled on this issue, telling citizens they can’t get married is something perfectly fine. “The voters should decide,” they argue. 
Just like they did back in the days when laws prohibited people of different races from getting married, right?
The rest of the opinion was filled with the normal crap those against equality posted: If we allow this, then we have to allow polygamy, and then the next thing you know people will want to marry their toaster. You know, the kind of ridiculous arguments that those against equality have always spouted, going back to Dredd Scott.
This decision only applies to those states under the court’s jurisdiction: Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.
An appeal can be filed to the entire bench (an “en banc” appeal) to reconsider this decision, but it is just as likely that it will instead go directly to the US Supreme Court where this issue was ultimately heading anyway.
