It's that magical time of year again when we should all fill out our mail-in ballots or head to our assigned polling place to cast our votes. Given the emphasis that is always placed on the primaries in the Pittsburgh area, it always feels like people might not show up for the general election.
With the amount of yard signs that I'm seeing around town for everyone's racist uncle that decided to run for mayor, I am feeling rather paranoid about the outcome of that race. I keep thinking of that episode of The Simpsons where Bart ran for class president and lost because all of his classmates thought he was going to win so no one bothered to vote. If that happens we could end up with a racist cop that doesn't seem to know much about anything as our mayor and that is chilling. So, please, don't be complacent and throw a vote toward Ed Gainey.
If you live in Pittsburgh's Council District 4, which is in the South Hills, you might see Connor Mulvaney on your ballot for city council. He's running as the Green party candidate against feckless turd Anthony Coghill. Coghill only seems to show up for ribbon cuttings and photo ops. Aside from not really doing anything for his district, he has publicly shown himself to be quite the bootlicker when it comes to reigning in Pittsburgh's violent police force.
With the immense amount of judges on the ballot, it's important that we start building a firewall against a potential Republican governor that might be elected next year. Building up the state's judiciary will be one of the last possible protections that we'll have. And I did notice the judge that presided over the Michael Rosfeld trial (the cop that murdered Antwon Rose) was up for retention so he was an easy “No” vote along with every other judge on the back of my ballot.
As much as the Democratic party has been a much expected disappointment, they are the only buffer between lunacy and the people. With the Republican party embracing authoritarianism and white supremacy while attempting to rewrite history in real time, I see no other option than to vote against them at every opportunity. They are flagrantly coming after abortion rights, voting rights and attempting to destroy education with their ginned up fear of history. I really don't want Pennsylvania becoming the Texas of the north but it feels like we are heading that way.
If you've seen any political ads on television this cycle, you may have caught the new buzzphrase that goes something like “My name is so and so and I'll protect the Constitution.” That seems to be the new dogwhistle for people that think preventing the spread of a deadly airborne virus is less important than the ability to go to Applebees or going to a sportsball game. They were somehow appalled that the Governor would use his powers as the Governor to try to protect people from dying and that covering their dirty mouths while out in public was violation of their rights.
Either that or “I'll protect the Constitution” is code for “Friends, Romans and fellow white people, I will protect your made up bubble of bullshit and keep you safe from the coloreds and the gays.” If I were a betting man, I'd say it's a little from column A and a little from column B.
In years past, you may have thought that it doesn't matter who you vote for and that all of the candidates were the same. That bit of nihilism has been proven false because this shit hits everybody. The local and state levels have been rotten for years because of low voter turnout and that's where the bulk of our day to day interactions are. If you want cops to be held accountable and have a few of their dollars spread around to services that will actually help and serve people, then you have to vote in those ever so boring off year elections. I know it sucks to have to pay attention to this stuff all of the time and I would love to direct my brain power elsewhere but it's when we look away that these pigfuckers start getting aggressive and cross lines that they have no business crossing.
“We keep us safe” has to extend beyond punching Nazis in the street and into the voting booth. These scumbags are running for every possible office at every level, from local school boards to governorships, and they must be stopped.
No comments:
Post a Comment