Is my right to equal rights — to live, love, serve my country, adopt a child, visit my dying partner, manage my property and a thousand other things you take for granted — more important than your right to vote your party line?
It seems so to me. It all seems very personal to me. But maybe I’m being unfair. I would actually like to think so.
I’d like to say it’s your right to believe as you choose. That I believe in your right to vote your conscience and that I will honor our nation’s tradition of agreeing to disagree. That you can vote for someone who uses my rights as a rallying cry to the most fanatical element of his base to get elected. That there are more important things to you and simply accept your complicity in my continuing to be deemed “less than”.
That on November 5th we can still be friends.
I’d like to say that.
5 responses so far ↓
ann-marie // September 9, 2008 at 10:58 am
but pandering to people’s fear, especially of the unknown, has always worked!
if we could center a discussion on the thing that makes us free–our constitutionally given equality–we might understand that when we don’t all have equal rights, the paper our nation was founded on starts to crumble. if one group is less equal than another, we are not a free nation. we can only pretend to be. or we could try saying we are a nation of some free folks.
should we talk about that? hell, yes.
will we? i doubt it…
corematters // September 11, 2008 at 8:12 am
political platform, overheard:
it’s ok to be gay and be in the military
it’s ok to be gay and die in iraq
it’s ok to be gay and stay in the closet
but it’s not ok to be gay…
Pandelong // September 11, 2008 at 11:11 am
The GOP is all about fear and identity politics. Issues don’t matter, people don’t matter, civil rights don’t matter. Sadly, that’s OK… that’s the First Amendment. They have the right to say all this. I can see through what they are doing, but why is 50% of America so dumb that they can’t see it for what it is as well?
It’s embarrassing. Are we that stupid as a country and therefore can only elect stupid leaders?
sigh…
corematters // September 12, 2008 at 8:13 am
perhaps even sadder is the fact that about 40% of our eligible voters DON’T EVEN VOTE!!
otgh // September 12, 2008 at 10:59 am
How sad it is depends on how many of the other 60% are Republicans….