Election Day 2024
Oct. 29th, 2024 07:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
illusionofjoyWe in the United States are one week away from Election Day - or, more accurately at this point - the conclusion of election season. If you are in Pennsylvania, the polls to vote in person are open from 7:00AM until 8:00PM on Tuesday, November 5th. If you opted for mail-in voting, you should probably get that ballot in a post office box immediately so it isn't late and you don't risk it not being counted! My ballot was filled out and submitted weeks ago.
To the detriment of any other long-form journal writing, for several years now I've encouraged people to vote and then "endorsed" a laundry list of candidates. However, at this juncture, I feel it would be remiss of me to act like everything is normal this year: things are most certainly not normal. The republican nominee for President is a fascist - there is simply no other way to put it. His rally at Madison Square Garden over the weekend was the most amplified his hateful rhetoric has ever been. This same rhetoric has persisted since his firing from the office in 2020 and his violent attempts to keep it on January 6th, 2021.
This gluttonous desire for power has made executing the duties of an elections worker a hazardous job. Nationwide, poll workers and elections officials have faced threats of violence by people who have been lied to and whipped into a frenzy by a man who neither cares for them personally nor the institution of democracy as a whole. As I think forward to once more executing my duties as a Judge of Election at my polling place this Tuesday, November 5th, it remains on my mind that I am among those who have been threatened. Will it happen again and how shall I defend not only myself, but democracy?
Perhaps I will write at length one day about what happened when the wolves came to my door. It feels especially salient as I prepare myself to step up and make the case for my own reelection in 2025. However, in my role as a private citizen, a lover of democracy and an American, I implore my fellow voters...
Please, please, PLEASE reject fascism. Vote for democracy and decency. Vote to to pull our nation back from the brink.
To the detriment of any other long-form journal writing, for several years now I've encouraged people to vote and then "endorsed" a laundry list of candidates. However, at this juncture, I feel it would be remiss of me to act like everything is normal this year: things are most certainly not normal. The republican nominee for President is a fascist - there is simply no other way to put it. His rally at Madison Square Garden over the weekend was the most amplified his hateful rhetoric has ever been. This same rhetoric has persisted since his firing from the office in 2020 and his violent attempts to keep it on January 6th, 2021.
This gluttonous desire for power has made executing the duties of an elections worker a hazardous job. Nationwide, poll workers and elections officials have faced threats of violence by people who have been lied to and whipped into a frenzy by a man who neither cares for them personally nor the institution of democracy as a whole. As I think forward to once more executing my duties as a Judge of Election at my polling place this Tuesday, November 5th, it remains on my mind that I am among those who have been threatened. Will it happen again and how shall I defend not only myself, but democracy?
Perhaps I will write at length one day about what happened when the wolves came to my door. It feels especially salient as I prepare myself to step up and make the case for my own reelection in 2025. However, in my role as a private citizen, a lover of democracy and an American, I implore my fellow voters...
Please, please, PLEASE reject fascism. Vote for democracy and decency. Vote to to pull our nation back from the brink.
