VOTE or Die

Do y’all remember that whole ‘Vote or Die’ campaign back in the early 2000’s? Who knew just how relevant that would become? Because honestly, people are dying. The Earth is dying. You have to vote. Seriously, if you don’t vote, you don’t get the right to an opinion. Ever.

And if you’re voting for Trump - honestly, I don’t know how to help you. You’re either extremely ignorant and unaware, or you’re a bad person or you’re saying you’re OK with a bad person leading our nation. There’s no excuse to be voting for an openly hateful, sexual predator. Let’s get that out of the way now.

National voter registration day JUST happened - and I hope you are all registered to vote, but if you aren’t, please do so HERE. For information on the last day to register - go HERE.

NOW - on top of voting, you need to educate yourself on what you’re voting for.

Here are some resources for voting:

California Secretary of State

The League of Women Voters Education Fund

Ballotpedia

You can also easily access useful information on polling places, voter guides, etc. on your Secretary of State’s website.

Whatever you do, register to vote - and then do your research and VOTE. Not being informed, not being involved - it’s not okay. You owe it to yourself, your country, and your future to actively engage in the government and how it operates for you and your fellow citizens. If these past four years have taught us anything, it’s that when we allow uneducated people to lead, we all fail.

I also highly suggest volunteering and going door to door even once to contribute to your local drive to get others to register to vote and actually vote. If you can host a polling place or volunteer at one, do it. Being involved in democracy is huge. Bottom line, get involved.

AND VOTE!

Political Expert: Me.

Now I would not consider me a political expert.  I would consider myself politically educated, aware, and informed.  But I also have moments whereI have to google things because I have no idea what you're talking about.

But politically speaking - I think the party system is the dumbest invention we've got in politics.  Politics are not a sport.  When one side wins, a lot of people can lose.  I find it a bit Hunger Games in general when a political party wins and millions of people lose healthcare, or families are divided, or really poor people suffer more. 

Politically I don't identify with either party as a whole.  Blind party loyalty is how we ended up in the mess we are in today and voting purely to align with Democrat or Republican is uneducated.  We would be a lot better off as a nation if everyone acted independently and researched policies, laws, and candidates and then made a choice based on what works best for human beings.  Read that back - because all the suits on Capitol Hill - they're not living in the same world we are.  These things we are voting on - they affect people like you and I more than suit #32 who is not affected by new healthcare laws or tax policies.

What I'm seeing lately is a country divided based on us vs them.  Democrat vs Republican.  There's a lot of who lost and who won.  And that disgusts me.  Politics affect lives.  They affect the livelihood of our people.  And THAT is what we need to focus on.  Winning is when we have low unemployment, a healthcare system that works by taking care of our families, and taxes that make it possible for everyone to have a shot at making it financially.  How is celebrating poverty, sickness, and hatred a part of our political system?  How is that winning for anyone?

I'm not really in a place to suggest what the solution is.  And we probably should not rely on me to fix the entire political system in America (Mandatory happy hour?) but I dare say I'm not alone in my feeling that what we;re currently working with is broken.  And feeling that way should not be confused for lack of pride in my country.  The people out there fighting against the bad are so in love with our great nation that we are fiercely committed to its survival.  I love America.  I am so proud to be American.  If I wasn't passionate about this country - I wouldn't be so active in defending what it was created to be.