It's almost midnight on Election Day. Yes, I went to the polls and voted, even though I didn't want to. This happens every election day, I vow to opt out, but the guilt makes me go. This Election Day was no different. I'm in an uncomfortable position. I'm a lefty in the State of South Carolina. I couldn't vote for Al Greene, a joke that never made a campaign speech, and is being investigated for sending pornography to women over the internet. I voted Green Party. I voted Democrat for Sheehan over the republican Nikki Haley for Governor. Sheehan was a guy I knew nothing about, he ran attack ads against Haley (as she did on him) but he was a Democrat in a Red State. He came surprisingly close to winning. If only he had told the voters who he was and what he believed in, we could have had a Democrat as South Carolina's Governor.
Not that I'm a Democrat. I'm not, I'm a Socialist. There wasn't a Socialist on the ballot here. So I was presented with corporate trained Bozo's that I had to decide on. Who would cause the least damage? That was the criteria I had to guide me.
Not to say that South Carolina is a backward State. In some instances maybe, but in the upstate, especially around Greenville (which is getting to be quite a large city), the Republicans have really taken care of the people that live here. We have an economic zone that gives large companies tax credits to move their manufacturing here. BMW, Fluor, GE and quite a few other corporations have taken advantage of these incentives and set up shop here. Our unemployment numbers are below the national average. Yes, I can say something good about Republicans, especially if they deserve the credit, and they do. Some other things about South Carolina is that I've never lived in a State that has more personal freedom. Yes folks, right here in a Republican State. Let the devil have its due. The Tea Partiers haven't made a big impact here because there is not much government here to b*tch about. That might sound good to some, but if you are out of work in this State, guess what? You'll probably go hungry.
I sat and watched MSNBC and watched them make their assessments about why the Democrats lost so badly. Well the fact that the President didn't do anything but reward his campaign contributors with a massive deficit causing bail-out while turning its back on the manufacturing sector wasn't a real vote-getter. The panel on TV skirted around the issue, but the fact was that they massaged the corporate state at the expense of the people was their real demise, but the Democrats are too corporately entrenched in the legal bribery system that is politics in the U.S. They are no longer "The party of the people". They are the party of those that have the money to buy power. That was the real issue.
Maybe if the 60% of the eligible voters went to the polls and voted alternatively, we could have had the type of change that Obama only talks about. When you realize that only 40% of the people make all the decisions on who gets into government you might figure out why we are in the mess we're in. Still, I can understand why most people don't take voting seriously. They don't get to participate in the "system". The two corporate political parties meet in closed back rooms and toss out "their" candidates and make us choose. Meanwhile, we hardly know who these characters are.
I'm probably talking to the wall, but there is hope. Today I got in touch with a Socialist organization out of North Carolina to see about setting up shop in Upstate South Carolina. Maybe next Election Day there will be Socialists on the ballot. I sure don't believe we are ever going to see a resurgence of the "American Dream" with the two parties in power now. If I can't get it off the ground, maybe I'll join the Greens. Maybe we should all start thinking of alternatives. The status quo is killing us and it's really our own damn fault.
