If you are thinking about sitting out this election, these comments are meant for you. I know some of you are discouraged about the Democratic candidates. I know some Dems are not all you wish them to be. But vote anyway. Hold your nose if you have to. This vote is vital. You have one remaining week to educate yourself on the issues if you haven't yet. I know how frustrating it can be, but if you don't vote for the lesser of two evils, you allow the greater of two evils. Kindly allow me to tell you the Legend of the Village of the Middle Class below the phantasmagorical squiggly, with a little help from comedy legend George Carlin.
The Republicans are fire-breathing dragons who are tools of the rich kings. At the behest of their kings, they are burning down the village of the middle class. They will not vote to raise the minimum wage, keep CEOs from taking insanely high performance bonuses, raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for needed social programs, stop jobs or savings from moving overseas, etc. These are what their rich kings are against, and they obey. They don't care how much damage they do to the village of the middle class.
The Democrats are our knights in shining armor. They stand between the village of the middle class and the fire-breathing dragons. But they are timid. In part, they are timid because they too have to receive payment from some rich kings or they may not survive.
But just because the knights are timid, and thus sometimes they have allowed too much of the village to burn down, does not mean that the immediate and direct cause of the village burning is the timid Democratic knights. The immediate and direct cause of the village burning is the fire-breathing Republican dragons.
So we have to take action to save ourselves, namely: Vote. Vote as if the village of the middle class depends on it, because it does. Especially if your knight has received very little money from the rich kings, vote enthusiastically. Show them that they don't need a dragon hoard of money to win. Once we elect them, the knights will have a chance to protect us. The more votes they have, the stronger and straighter they will stand.
When the timid knights see that we have their backs, they will stiffen their spines. They will be less timid. Especially if it didn't cost them so much to win our votes. Especially if we back them in large numbers. They will attack the fire-breathing dragons and stop their attacks on the village of the middle class, perhaps eventually even drive the dragons away.
But if you say, "I don't like timidity, I will vote for those with the courage of their convictions!" and you vote for Republicans, then we will have more Republican fire-breathing dragons than ever, and the village of the middle class will burn down more quickly.
But if you think, "I will vote for the Republican fire-breathing dragons because they and their rich masters scare me. If I appease them, perhaps they will stop burning down my village and will start trickling some of that wealth down on me," look at history. Appeasement has never worked. Trickle-down economics has never worked. We have been trying this since Reagan. If it worked, we would all be well-off by now. They don't care about you. They won't help you. They are arrogant and self absorbed, and think they are entitled to the kings' graces.
* They are not grateful for your votes.
* They are not grateful for your military service.
* They are not grateful for your work. Not even if you made them scads of money.
Republicans, other than their fiery rhetoric, are cold-blooded reptiles. They don't care about you. Like the man said:
So please vote. And vote Democratic. Give the timid knights adequate encouragement to throw off their timidity. Once the dragons are driven away, we can rebuild. We can even build a more widespread, more prosperous, more fireproof village of the middle class than we have had before.