Image Transcription:
A tweet from the George Takei Twitter account which states:
"A Democrat was in the White House when my family was sent to the internment camps in 1941. It was an egregious violation of our human and civil rights.
It would have been understandable if people like me said they’d never vote for a Democrat again, given what had been done to us.
But being a liberal, being a progressive, means being able to look past my own grievances and concerns and think of the greater good. It means working from within the Democratic party to make it better, even when it has betrayed its values.
I went on to campaign for Adlai Stevenson when I became an adult. I marched for civil rights and had the honor of meeting Dr. Martin Luther King. I fought for redress for my community and have spent my life ensuring that America understood that we could not betray our Constitution in such a way ever again.
Bill Clinton broke my heart when he signed DOMA into law. It was a slap in the face to the LGBTQ community. And I knew that we still had much work to do. But I voted for him again in 1996 despite my misgivings, because the alternative was far worse. And my obligation as a citizen was to help choose the best leader for it, not to check out by not voting out of anger or protest.
There is no leader who will make the decision you want her or him to make 100 percent of the time. Your vote is a tool of hope for a better world. Use it wisely, for it is precious. Use it for others, for they are in need of your support, too."
End Transcription.
The last paragraph I find particularly powerful and something more people really should take into account.
Although I’m not advocating for any kind of violence, honestly it seems like this government has run its course and is now fundamentally broken without possibility of repair. I’m not sure how we can possibly recover from the 2010 Citizen’s United decision which cemented our elected positions being put up for sale to the highest bidder. The evidence indicates that Congressman voting behavior correlates directly with the interests of their funders and shows no correlation to the polled desires of their own constituents. It’s a common cycle for democracy to devolve like this to represent only its most powerful and influential citizens. When that happens eventually confidence in the democratic process collapses and people tend to support populist autocrats (most famously Julius Caesar) to “restore justice.” I would prefer a peaceful transition to a new constitution with better bribery protections baked in but I understand how unlikely that is. It’s sad that the best we can hope for is a managed decline but here we are.