We get that you may not feel like voting this Tuesday. We would not be surprised if you didn’t even know that there is a primary election on August 2, much less what’s on the ballot and who’s running.
But you should go to the polls anyway.
Here are some practical reasons why:
• Eighty percent of success in life consists of showing up. The ratio may be even higher in politics, where you can find almost a direct correlation between the attention communities get and the electoral turnout. Successful communities are voting communities.
• It won’t take you very long. Most Democratic Party ballots will have only 2 or 3 contests: for state rep and for state central committee. Republican ballots will have even fewer.
• Voting builds muscle memory. It’s a habit. If you tell yourself the primary doesn’t matter you’ll be likely to repeat that excuse come November when the “off-year” general election is held.
• It's the "unimportant" elections that lay the groundwork for the zealots who wish to invade our bedrooms, ban our books, deny our history, restrict our right to vote, and return us to the back of the bus.
The bad habit of not voting in every election every time helped pave the way for the worst president in our history, a guy who’d sell us all down the river to feed his ego or fatten his wallet.
Donald Trump effectively careened his Hummer around our lawn, destroyed our shrubs, smashed into the porch, peed on the couch, defecated on the rug, and defaced the walls. He didn’t do more damage only because enough of your cousins in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona voted him out before he had the chance. But he left three Supreme Court justices and a slew of other zealots behind, poised like groundhogs to undermine the foundation. And even though he's off the property momentarily, he's clearly skunking around just outside the fence, eager to return.
Frankly we should be on the polls like Wil Smith on Chris Rock at the Oscars, albeit with more self-control.
We should be upset and embarrassed that we live in a community where turnout is a disgusting 20%.
The polls will be open Tuesday, August 2, from 6:30a until 7:30p. Please exercise your muscles and your constitutional duty and vote.
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