Gangstalked By Libs

There is an election happening in the USA, I’m sure you have heard about it. Every week since late summer I have received in the mail at least one handwritten postcard begging me to vote for some annoying conservative cantidate! They call them Democrats and they think because I registered to that party in 2015 (to vote for Bernard Sanders, in a primary election), that I might still be there for them. Voting records and party registrations are publicly available information so I guess it’s spread around town that I am sadly, and only on paper, still in their political party! I think the voter registration list is also where jury duty summons are pulled from by the courts, too. It’s a regrettable list to be on, but I don’t regret trying to build momentum for socialism once. I believe most liberals at least mean well and seem to argue in good faith. 

The first time I was eligible to vote was in 2000. It took a few weeks to learn the election results then, and the Supreme Court eventually had to decide. Is there any doubt they would throw it to the Republicans again?  I voted in the 2010 mid-term election, when there was the lowest turnout of any USA election in history (yeah I will continue to pat myself on the back for that one). My goal then was trying to get progressive leaders in power “to help Obama”, I was hyped up for some hope and some change, but it was a failure. 

Protesting and direct action has been a much better fit for me, to voice my concerns with the world around me. There was a protest movement that popped off from Occupy Wall Street (it appeared in most every city in the USA in autumn 2011) it was an exciting time to network and challenge ourselves.  A few times in my life I have gone to jail from a protest, but it wasn’t unexpected nor brutal (and I was quickly released). But since 2020 I have been more hesitant to want any kind of attention like that! It seems like police are so comfortable to just execute people in public over nothing. Now my neighborhood has a tenants union and there is a mutual aid organization, and I am not really interested in elections as much, nor protesting.

It was in 2018 my dear daughter was finally old enough to register to vote! Having such a creepy psycho president as Trump was very stressful for teen girls (and everyone else as well) she was looking forward to helping thwart his hateful work through the electoral process. We got the form at the post office, then went to a cafe, where she filled it out and we snacked. I told her she can register for any party, and why someone might choose one they don’t fully agree with ( as I had done), and I will never forget what she said to me: “the word Republican sends a shiver down my spine” it was not an expression I’ve heard from her before. I knew she was anxious about all their obnoxious remarks and environmental deregulations! But I hate to think she is really easily scared. At that time, I told her (probably wrongly?! I really don’t know) to be open-minded and she might end up working around Republicans, I warned that people in her life may be much more conservative than she really suspects. Having been raised by me, there might be some leftist rubbed off onto her somehow, even though she registered to the Democrat party. That was the year people hoped for a “blue wave” but it was another mid-term flop.   

I’m not hopeful for the election results. If Kamala Harris wins, that will be the first woman president, which is exciting, but one of the very few things I know about her is how she locked up the mothers of truant teenagers. She put one of these women in prison for her kid missing too much school (it was a disabled child getting medical treatment, and the treatment was disrupted by mom being incarcerated) that is so messed up and vile. She’s said so much to champion women’s reproductive rights, but won’t shout her abortion story or say a word about why she only has step-kids, well it’s a little “weird” some might say. She said she is going to put Republicans in her cabinet, that’s really disappointing to imagine (I hope it’s a lie!).  I don’t want President Trump again! Please do not mistake my complaints. North Korea will nuke Ukraine, and every book will get burned within the first week. The news will be so annoying! I do not want to go to a camp, etc

Soon at least the junk mail will stop! Everyone is tired of hearing about this election, so sorry to go on yapping, but it weighs on my mind.