On voting, from Molly Ivins [View All]

[politicat]

I know it's hard for young people to envision old age or illness, or the sick feeling of frantic despair when your old wreck of a car finally dies (it always does this in traffic) and will not start again. Poeple who work two and even three jobs to support their kids get so tired -- you can't imagine how tired -- and guilt and depression and anxiety all pile on, too. The difference between Gore and Bush matters to those folks.

This is an old argument between radicals and liberals; sometimes I'm on one side, and sometimes I'm on the other. In the primaries, I vote to change the world; in November, I bote for a sliver more for programs that help the needy.

I do not believe that things have to get worse before they can get better. I think you will find that most mothers object to the idea that you would deliberately do something to make a child's life worse in order to bring about some presumed greater good in the long run. I believe that the best can be the enemy of the better. I believe in taking half a loaf, or even a slice.

And how do we ever change the whoe rotten system at that speed? Brick by brick, child by child, slowly, toward liberty and justice for all. The urgent, crucial need right now is to fix the money in politics. It can be done, it will be done, and it is being done, and we will get better politics.

In Texas, we'll vote for Nader and a perfect world. You swing-state progressives need to make the hard choice -- but you're not making it just for yourselves. Good luck to you all.

-- Molly Ivins, The 2000 Vote, October 2000, reprinted in Who Let The Dogs In? : Incredible Political Animals I Have Known Random House

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These words were written before Bush v. Gore, before 9/11, before terror became the tool that it is today. But they still hold true. Every election is about making things just a little bit better, improving the situation just a little bit. Brick by brick.

Throwing all the bums out only replaces them with a new set of bums that are unknown quantities, bums that may make it worse because they don't have any experience. Refusing to vote at all is giving up on a process that is creaky and clanky and prone to failure, and when it does work it often takes curses and kicks, but it does work. And a working, if laggy system is better than none at all.

Take half a loaf. Take a slice. Rage and yell and write letters to the Dem pols in your district. Make them be accountable, but put them in office because they're a better bet for the single mom with two kids and three jobs than the alternative. When we win the Senate or the House, when we take back the Legislature, we have a place from which we can work. But we can't do the work we have to get done if we're locked out of the building because no one could be bothered to bring the keys.