For Once, North Carolina Counts!

The three registered Democrats in my household (minus Independent but not yet registered grandson who just turned 18) all voted yesterday in the basement of the First Baptist Church. Where the precinct polling place was moved 6 years ago when the train station was being refurbished (for passenger service that never materialized), and has not moved back. We took to absentee and early voting after only one trip to the Baptist basement, given that I resented the Noah’s Ark mural looking over my shoulder, the many (obviously new and for the purpose) posters reminding us of what Jesus would think and do, and absolutely hated those awful, notorious Diebold Etch-a-Sketches that threw 2004’s state races into such turmoil that Diebold was shown the border and told NEVER to return. Criminals.

They did paint over the Noah mural, and we went back to paper ballots. In a town with just two precincts and a total population of 738, it’s just not that hard to count votes. Filling in a little circle like we did in school, with a nice black Sharpee ensures me that nobody’s going to misinterpret my intent. No chads to hang, no programming to hack, just a nice black mark right there next to the name of the person I’m voting for. Cool.

We all voted for Obama. Yes, we’re white, not-quite middle class, certifiably southern. And we did actually like Bill Clinton, and tolerated his wife for all those years. Her embarrassingly negative, race-baiting campaign against Obama – along with the seriously irritating whiny quality of her voice – turned us off big time. The presidency is not something we “owe” her, but she never tired of telling us we did. Bullshit. She can earn our votes the old fashioned way or do without. Yesterday she did without.

Our state primary is so late in the campaign season that we usually don’t have anything at all to say about who will represent the party on the national level. We’ve always voted anyway, because we DO have some say over who represents us directly in DC and in Raleigh. All my favored candidates except Jim Neal were confirmed, and the lady who did win will probably show better against “The Kansan” Liz Dole anyway. Everything’s fine.

So it didn’t surprise me this morning to see Hillary once again claiming that North Carolina can’t possibly “count” as important to the process, because she didn’t win. Moreover, she claims that the Dem can’t possibly win NC in November no matter who we voted for. As if Jesse Helms and the Pig Farmer weren’t turned out on their ears years ago, as if Liz Dole somehow represents this state (she does not and never did), and as if we didn’t manage to send Chainsaw Charlie (Taylor) packing back to his slumlord tenements at long last just two years ago.

Screw you, Hillary! We can, now that Diebold isn’t stealing our votes, definitely help to elect a Democratic administration in November to begin undoing all the awful damage 8 years of BushCo gifted this nation with. The policies YOU supported, the criminal behavior YOU excused, the eugenic health care policies YOU sold to Big Pharma and the health insurance scam.

For once, we count. I believe we’re energized enough to count in November, too. Big changes need to happen, and the old guard won’t even admit there’s anything wrong. If we can begin to fix the nation without general strikes and massive demonstrations, we should do it. If not, then the government should re-think its source of power. Because we can always remind them in no uncertain terms that it belongs with We the People, not with them – supposed servants of the people (rather than corporations).

They’ve robbed us blind… again. We’ve nothing much to lose at this point, so beware. Democracy can topple the totalitarian trends of recent years in no time flat. Change will happen. We aren’t just part of it, we ARE it. Good for us!

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Filed under Barack Obama, Campaigns, Hillary Clinton, Party Primaries, Presidential Candidates, Voting Rights | Comment (0)