You Can't Get Tired

I understand all of you are getting tired of the election.  I am too.  But after hearing Saturday Night Live's cold open this weekend, where Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon dropped character as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, respectively, and said what everybody was saying aloud, I kind of want to push back.  With respect, but firmly.

I do not think I'm sounding all that paranoid when I say that Trump supporters, the true enemies of America, are lying in wait for us to falter because of fatigue.  Correct-minded people want to turn away from the darkness and toxicity that has been unleashed in this campaign, moreso than in any other.  But I have two things to say to that.  First, this shit is coming from only one side -- Republicans.  And second, the future of this country depends on how many people from our side vote vs. how many people from their side vote.  (It also depends a lot on how many states rig the election for Trump and Republicans, which I think is very real, but that's beyond the scope of what I want to talk about here.)  Being tired of all the noise and vitriol leads some to not vote at all, because they think Both Sides Do It (which is total bullshit) or they are so sick of it all that they don't want to have anything to do with the enterprise.

For those who feel the latter, and would vote for Clinton if not for all the crap that's being flung around, I have to tell you something: Republicans are counting on your lack of fight.  These goddamn Republicans are good, really good, frighteningly good, at being relentless in a war of attrition.  Mind you, they started all of this, and so they are quite good at it.  So while you turn the other cheek and try to be above it all, they're taking control of the country and slowly destroying our way of life.

That's been their modus operandi for a long time now.  Consider, for example, the Voting Rights Act.  Ever since it was shepherded through Congress and signed into law, there have been dark and powerful forces in our nation that wanted that act taken down.  So, lawyers who felt the same way vowed to do so -- as soon as their careers blossomed to the point they could do something about it.  Two of those people were named William Rehnquist and John Roberts.  And they were so good at what they did that the people they represented as lawyers, once they got elected into positions in power, in turn rewarded them with spots in the United State Supreme Court -- and, eventually in Rehnquist's case (I believe Roberts was nominated by W as Chief Justice and was not elevated), Chief Justice.  Rehnquist never got the case that he could have turned into the hammer that brought down the VRA, but Roberts did.  Despite no proof of voter fraud, states enacted voter suppression laws.  One, Texas, I swear signed such a law the very next day.  And now, the states of North Carolina, Ohio and Florida -- with their Republican-installed Secretaries of State -- have already begun fucking with people's rights.  Voter ID hasn't really worked, so they have shortened early voting hours, cut early voting places, and started other new-fangled cockamamie ideas such as "ballot harvesting" -- all in an effort to make sure minorities and the young (both prime Democratic voting blocs) can't vote.

Executing the Four Corners Offense is also in effect for them in Congress.  They basically have ground the affairs of the government to a halt the past six years, passing nothing of importance.  The Senate has prevented the installation of a ninth Supreme Court Justice.  And now some Republican Senators have vowed that if Clinton wins the White House, they won't hold a hearing on any nominee to the Supreme Court.  They'll keep it at eight as long as it damn well pleases them.  And if another member dies, well, that's two vacancies in the Supreme Court -- so what?  These Republicans are just going to sit there and pout and do nothing until they get their way.

And they will get their way if we don't outvote them.  So we need as many Democratic votes as possible, despite all the garbage and poison they have thrown onto the airwaves and the Internet.  They have done this shit for a long time, and they now have a chance to control all the levers of power.  And they're depending on Americans' fatigue and disgust in order to achieve that goal.  So although you're tired and can't stand this, keep going.  You can't get tired, because those assholes over there never will.