This morning I drove between two government welfare operations (a “school” and some sort of dance hall/basketball court). Dozens of merry-looking people lined the street (many of them heavily heavy) waving and holding signs proclaiming the need to vote for one criminal busybody or another. The otherwise pleasant neighborhood was clogged with hideous campaign signs. I waved at a few of the sign holders and laughed to myself.
Ah! Another election. Another chance for the slaves to make suggestions about their overseers. Another chance to remember Mencken: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” Later at the supermarket I observed some of the overweight and/or disabled and/or EBT-empowered citizenry sporting cute little “I voted!” stickers. I am so happy for them. I’m glad they are proud they think they made a difference. I know they didn’t but it is good for folks to have something to believe in.
I believe in freedom. I have it. I have it because I take it. I do not need to waste time playing political games with people who despise me and who are not fit to shine shoes let alone hold important offices. I know the concept is so simple that it cuts against the grain of what most have been taught. I get it. They vote to feel comfortable. I say let them. I’m happy for that one in a million that finally notices that after election after election after election, after all the lies and broken promises – that nothing changes. It’s a rigged game and the house always wins. I’d love to see people stop playing. If everyone stopped the politicians and their false god would shrivel up and try to slink away by night.
Some people get militant about elections and “their” state. It is usually the militants. They are generally given to a particular faction. They even get militant about militancy – often in conjunction with their partisanship. Facebook provides a lot of examples. Take this one:
One sees the darndest things on Facebook.
This post is an attempted admonishment of people like me, insinuating that by not supporting the criminal regime we insult the memory of dead soldiers (valiant every one of them).
Let’s start with the picture. I said it was about partisanship. “Republicans who stay home elect Democrats.” I suppose this is not targeted specifically at me, the anarchist. Shame on the non-voting Republicans! Shame! But, what happens if they decide to vote and vote Democrat? What it the Democrats do the opposite? What if everyone stays home and nobody votes? Who cares, really? I’ve noticed over the long years that both parties tend to push the same thing – their god of omnipresent government. It never works out for anyone except the politicians, some bureaucrats, the banksters and other corporate criminal hacks. Again, why participate in such a stupid scheme?
For non-voting Republicans the shame goes deeper than just seeing the other team in office. “Keep this in mind when you turn your back on the millions who died to give and keep your right to vote as you choose to stay home and not vote.” Modern Republicans tend to be jingoistic and pro-military – to the point of making the armed forces a demi-god under almighty government. Support the troops!
As with the subject picture, this caption is complete and total bullshit. Millions did not die to give you the right to vote. But, if they did, then they also would have given you the right to not vote. Rights do not have to be used. The freedom thing again – to do or not to do as one chooses.
In fact, “millions” dying is a stretch to begin with. The author of the caption obviously means the millions of American soldiers who died. At the outside maximum only 1.354 Million men have died in all of America’s wars. Out of that number only 664,440 actually died in combat.
Who knew we were in the middle of Operation Inherent Resolve? Resolve what? To vote? Wikipedia.
Wikipedia lists about 80 American wars or conflicts. That’s about one war every three years since we told off King George. We’re a warlike people it seems. Most of those wars had absolutely nothing to do with voting. At best I would say three were somewhat election related and those are very complicated cases. The Revolution set us free from England. That war was over before the current Constitutional (ha!) form of government was created. The statutory right to vote, indeed the existence of the government for and under which to vote was not around when those 25,000 soldiers (maximum estimate) died. Can they really be counted for Facebook shaming purposes?
The English struck back in 1812. Presumably they did not want to deprive Americans of the right to vote; they just wanted to change the voting system. Do we include the 15,000 (maximum estimate again) who died fending them off?
Then there is the strange case of the Civil War. It wasn’t a civil war by definition – more a war to stop a second revolution. It wasn’t a declared war either. The “wisdom” goes that Lincoln couldn’t get a declaration of war against the Confederacy because that would have required a facial acknowledgment of the CSA as a distinct nation. Semantics and legalities aside, Lincoln killed a whole hell of lot of people. The War of Northern Aggression was America’s deadliest conflict to date. 214,938 men were known to have perished in combat and an estimated 750,000 died all toll.
Of course, those numbers have to be divided into two sides. 364,511 died fighting for Lincoln; 299,524 died for Davis and Co. (By government math those numbers add up to 750,000). If by modern geography I identify myself with the Confederate dead, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that the 364,511 Union troops died trying to take away my (my ancestors) right to vote? Oh yeah, all those marauding Union troops came to my family’s home under orders from a Republican. Details…
Going with the above supposition, I’ll count the 299,524 CSA dead along with the maximum estimates of those killed in the other two wars for a grand total of 339,524 dying for the right to vote. If you subtract the Union dead from that number (they did die trying to take away the right, right?), then the total number of dead soldiers deceased for the electorate is 24,987 – terrible, but not in the millions. If the Yankees run a similar scenario, they come up with another number nowhere near one million, let alone millions plural.
The other wars? No voting consequences. WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War were arguably results of WWI and the awful aftermath. America entered WWI at the behest of bankers and other criminals who stood to make a lot of money. Ask Smedley Butler about that. The Germans did not ever want to take away your “I voted!” stickers. Neither did Ho Chi Minh. Saddam was no threat to the ballot. A huge number of our wars were fought against American Indians for the sole purpose of genocide (wave the flag about that). I cannot believe Wikipedia actually included the 34 killed on board the U.S.S. Liberty but, even so, those men died while minding their business in international waters while monitoring someone else’s war. No votes affected.
As sure as people will keep voting, America will keep on fighting more wars. I challenge the assertion that all those who died and those that surely will die deserve our respect (fighting for the vote or not). Columbia County, Georgia is a hotbed of pro-military, flag-waving, GOP voters. It is also the home of U.S. Army Sergeant Chris Muse. I have no idea if Sgt. Muse is willing to lay down his life in the very real possibility the Apache decide to attack an Evans polling place. I do know the police seem to think him capable of kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old girl. Should said girl’s parents thank Muse for his “service”? Should they go out and vote about it? Were I the girl’s father I would rather hang the criminal upside down and disembowel him with a rusty hacksaw. Then again, I am not a Republican.
This pitiful episode and others were about power, money and killing – not voting, freedom or slavery. Google.
No Republican nor Democrat nor any other fairy-tale believer am I. I am repulsed by the idea of giving my sanction to the government – the government known for wantonly killing at home and abroad for no other reasons than to exterminate Injuns and enrich slimy merchants. If you vote, you do so to honor murder and mayhem, not to honor the right of voting itself.
Keep yours ugly signs, your stickers, your child molesters, and your death merchants to yourself if keep them you must. Or, in the better alternative, join me in happy, unobtrusive freedom.
