Editorial
Editorial
Surviving the Election
As
I write this, Fall has just officially begun, and already I'm willing
to admit that I'm sick of this election - no small admission from a political
junkie.
I suspect that there are many more
of us out there feeling the same way.
So many of us pinned our hopes on home-grown
Howard Dean, who at the beginning of the year looked like he could get
the nomination. He woke up a young-middle-aged-old constituency by making
blunt statements to counter the Orwellian "newspeak" coming
from the other side. And when he was shot down in flames (some say he
shot himself in the foot), many of our hopes went down with him.
It's no secret that John Kerry has
endorsed both civil rights for gay men and lesbians and state constitutional
amendments to prevent us from marrying the partners we choose. He is not
the candidate closest to our hearts when we're considering who will be
best for our communities' wellbeing.
Meanwhile Republicans endorse an anti-gay
national platform. George W. Bush no longer claims to be a "compassionate
conservative" as he encourages Congress to pass a federal amendment
to disallow our marriages - and perhaps even void our state-sanctioned
civil unions.
It's a fact that Republicans on the
state level declined to show up at what was planned as a tri-partisan
get-out-the-vote Queer Summit meeting last spring and that Governor Jim
Douglas could not find it in his heart to issue a proclamation for our
Pride celebration.
And meanwhile, Democratic candidate Peter
Clavelle, like the presidential candidate who shares his party (and like
Howard Dean), has steadfastly refused to say in any forum, public or private,
that he is in favor of marriage equality for lesbians and gay men.
Our lives have been kicked from one end
of the political playing field to the other. We have been used and abused
for others' political gain, and from where I sit we haven't gained a whole
hell of a lot in the exercise. Well, with the exception of Massachusetts
marriages, but even that has been tainted by the exclusionary bullying
of Republican governor Mitt Romney’s application of a racist law.
No wonder we're exhausted.
It's just at this point that we need to
find our second wind, to let go of our disappointment in the flawed choices
available. Because, at bottom, this election isn't about us, though how
any society treats its minorities is a measure of its claims of humanity,
of being a moral leader in the world.
This election is about nothing less than
whether democracy survives. That is not an egregiously alarmist statement
for anyone who has thought in any depth about how totalitarian governments
evolve. But it should be an alarming realization.
I can't tell you how to vote, and no one
can coerce your conscience. I can only tell you how important it is to
vote. Unless we all vote, our votes might not count again for a very long
time.
Sometimes I think I'm preaching to the choir,
because according to Vermont surveys 90 percent of us who responded are
registered to vote and actually voted in the 2000 election. That was another
contest between flawed candidates for president and governor, but the
issue that galvanized most of us was civil unions.
But here's where hope can come alive. If
we vote, and if we call our neighbors and friends and take them with us
to the polls, we can have an impact. We can put into the state legislature
the people who will table all civil union rollback bills, who may even
entertain marriage equality to give us a seat at the federal court when
Massachusetts couples demand full faith and credit in the homes they've
moved to elsewhere.
We can choose the representatives who will
decide that this state Supreme Court Justice should stay and that one
should go. We can have a governor who knows wherefores of Lesbian Gay
Bisexual and Transgender Pride in the face of centuries of oppression.
By voting, we are choosing the choosers
on a national level, those who decide how clean is the air we breathe,
and how much mercury falls into the ocean, whether profit is more important
than the ordinary lives of everyday people. We can choose the deciders
who fund healthcare - or don't. Who base their policies on science - or
on theology. Who will choose or confirm the next two or even three Justices
of the US Supreme Court.
By voting - and making sure everyone on
our street votes - we show that we still, in our heart of hearts believe
in democracy - not theocracy - in one citizen, one vote.
And if we vote in our millions - if more
than two-thirds of us vote, not just the lgbt's, but the whole rest of
the alphabet, too - we will show that it will take more than manufactured
terror, manipulated fear, and massive lies to defeat the democracy that
is in our hearts, the knowledge that every person can have a say, check
the box, pull the lever, and yes, touch the screen.
So take it on as a challenge - vote, and
get at least 10 of your friends, neighbors, and family members to vote,
too. It's a matter of life or death for democracy - and there are still
plenty of people in the world dying to get the chance that we have and
ignore at our peril.
Euan Bear
Editor
Ballots are available to registered voters for early/absentee voting beginning October 4.