This will be my last post for awhile. I have come to hate visiting Daily Kos, because of the relentless temper tantrums as each of the Bernie/Hillary sides tear each other apart. I have wondered whether this was all trolling by conservatives, because it is so irrational the I have trouble believing it. I have come to think it is real, and that people care more about winning then about their fellow Americans, social justice and a better country. Too many would rather turn it all over to the Republicans — who so few attack now — let them eviscerate health care, child care, education, the environment, reproductive rights, and dole out cash to the wealthy — rather than vote for a Democrat who isn’t the one they support now.
I am not picking on Bernie or Hillary supporters alone. This is both, although I don’t know the proportions. I am sick of the talking points blather about HRC and corporations and Bernie and electability or socialism. Here’s reality: Lazy thumbnails characterizing either candidate is a sign of ignorance. These are both people who have given enormous thought on how to improve America and have differences that really are not so significant. Perhaps one would do one thing I don’t like or believe in, and so would the other. Neither is perfect for me. But they never are. I am not looking for a spouse or a love. I am looking for someone to lead this nation.
Recently, I put up a poll here, just to see how bad this “I won’t vote” mindset actually was. I’m not going to say that it is scientific, but it is indicative of something. Some 26% of the people who voted said they would not vote if their candidate didn’t win the Democratic nomination — regardless of whether the GOP nominee was Trump, Cruz, Carson, or anyone. Another 2% said they would only vote if the nominee was Trump. 5% said they would only vote if it was Cruz, and 2% said they wouldn’t vote if the nominee was at least two of those, but not any of them. In other words, 35% of progressives (I assume) will turn this country over to the Republicans if their candidate doesn’t win the Democratic nomination.
Do you honestly believe that people will be better off with less health care, tax cuts for the rich, more military, and probably another war. For those who say HRC is frothing at the mouth for war, it is again stupid blather that makes you feel good about demonization. And for those who say that Bernie will be unrealistic on national defense, again, stupid blather.
My Daily Kos name is Hungarian. It was suggested to me by my father, and it means “gradual success.” The reason he used this: He was part of the 1956 revolution in Hungary led by students. In the photo on this diary — which is a famous photo — that is my father on the right, with the poll covering his left cheek. He and his friends, while preparing for this, could not speak of plans openly, and contrary to what is believed by historians, my father tells me, they knew they were going to lose. No Hungarian could think they would go up against the Soviet Union and defeat them. They were not stupid. But what they did know they could do was start “fokozatos siker.” They could send a message to their fellow citizens that there was a large contingent of people within the nation ready to fight for their country and freedom. The revolution was crushed, but the revolutionaries knew they had drained money and power from the USSR and, after a year or so of crushing response, small freedoms began to emerge. They took advantage of those freedoms to create increasing trouble for the Soviets, in their effort to seek “fokozatos siker.” They risked death, they risked life imprisonment, all in the hopes of winning freedom — which my father defined as the right to vote in real elections. It didn’t matter whether his candidate won or lost, so long as elections were real. He lost friends in that fight, who died for a lot more than whether HRC “corporations” or Bernie “socialist.”
For all of you who say you won’t vote if your candidate doesn’t win the nomination, please know this: My father hates you. HATES you. He is a real revolutionary, not some schmuck sitting in a basement with a computer. He is a man who, with his friends, took up guns and fought the Soviets in the street, all so they could have the rights that you spit on as part of a temper tantrum. “What is wrong with these people?” he asks me all the time, before answering the question. “They’re either stupid or narcissists.”
So, for all of you who won’t vote because you are holding your breath until you turn blue, know this: My 85 year old father, who is now in a wheelchair, who needs an oxygen tank with him wherever he goes, and has never missed an election since he received his American citizenship, will be voting. He will vote in the primary. He will vote in the election. He will vote, he will vote, he will vote until the day he dies. And, because of his concerns that he might die before the general, he will be mailing in his vote in case he passes away before the polls open.
Why does he do this? Because he knows what real oppression is. Because he risked his life to win the right to vote. Because he knows, no candidate is ever perfect, but they are the true leaders, they guide the direction of the country, and they decide what world we will live in.
Or as my father said, “The vote decides what world we live in. And the people who pretend to care about the world, but don’t vote, are beneath contempt.”
I remember in 2010 hearing him say the same thing. So many people on here would ranting and raving about how Obama disappointed them and so they weren’t going to vote to teach him a lesson. Yah, what a lesson. State legislatures around the country filled up with Republicans. Immediate attacks began on reproductive rights. The House flipped to the GOP. Soon, the Senate went too — maybe that wouldn't have happened if people had voted in 2010. And then on this site, there were story after story about insane things that the GOP did. Would we have a Supreme Court Justice now who would change the direction of this nation for decades to come if the 2010 pouters had voted? Can’t rule it out. But the non-voters -- who are either too blind to recognize that they are turning over the country to the control of the people who do not care about anyone but the wealthy white males, or are so narcissistic that they only care about whether their love affair with a candidate goes unrequited, and to hell with the poor and oppressed — let it happen.
Please think about it. Make a dying man who actually fought in a real revolution happy. Prove that you are not stupid or narcissists, as he thinks you are. Contribute to deciding what world we live in. And if you still decide not to vote, shut up. Because you are the Hungarians who stay inside during 1956, complaining about oppression, but refusing to do anything to stop it because you wanted only guaranteed, total success, not fokozatos siker, the same fokozatos siker that has led to the freedoms now enjoyed by Hungarians. The same fokozatos skier that will make America a fairer, better place for everyone.
