{"id":51301,"date":"2024-07-04T14:18:18","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T21:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=51301"},"modified":"2024-07-04T14:18:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T21:18:18","slug":"thoughts-on-july-fourth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2024\/07\/04\/thoughts-on-july-fourth\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on July Fourth"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[]'><\/div>\n<p>This is not a day I currently celebrate; my current Facebook cover photo pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_0947-1024x450.jpeg\" alt=\"White text on a black background quoting the final line of Justice Sotomayor\u2019s dissent in Trump v. United States: \u2018With fear for our democracy, I dissent.\u2019 The final two words are in red.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"450\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-51302\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_0947-1024x450.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_0947-300x132.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_0947-768x337.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_0947-1536x674.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_0947.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t fall for the propaganda and disinformation campaigns (Biden\u2019s age is just this cycle\u2019s \u201cbut her emails\u201d, the headlines about his health are the same as were run about Hilary\u2019s health back then, he has no intention of stepping down, it would just cause chaos and problems if he did, and a vote for Biden is also a vote for Harris if that\u2019s who you\u2019d prefer).<\/p>\n<p>In your local elections, vote third party all you like (and push for ranked choice voting so there\u2019s a better chance of your candidates winning), but on the national stage, please, I\u2019m begging \u2014 put pragmatism and the health of our country over pure idealism. While a multiparty system would be better, we only have that in theory, and the reality is that there are only two candidates who can actually win. A third-party vote may arguably be a vote against Trump, but it\u2019s not a vote for Biden and \u2014 however little you may think of Biden \u2014 getting him into office is the best (and quite likely only) chance there is of you being able to support your third party candidates at any level in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Remember that voting for either candidate isn\u2019t just about the individual person, but also all the people they bring with them as part of their administration. Biden is imperfect, but has done a lot of good under very trying circumstances, and is surrounded by people who support him and help him work towards a better country. Trump and his cronies are focused on nothing less than the dismantling of our democracy and the installation of a fascist dictatorship. (And they\u2019re not even trying to hide it anymore.)<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also about correcting the direction of the SCOTUS. Trump was able to grab control of the Supreme Court by appointing three justices during his first term and there\u2019s a reasonable chance that more vacancies will open over the next presidential term. We\u2019re seeing now how much those appointments can affect things long after the president who made the appointment has left office. If Biden (or Harris) is in office when the next openings come up, we have a chance at reclaiming some amount of sanity for that branch of the government.<\/p>\n<p>And when it\u2019s time \u2014 vote. Too many people are convinced that voting doesn\u2019t matter, when we\u2019ve seen time and time again how slight swings one way or another can make huge differences. If those of us left of the Republican party (whether just a little left or <em>way<\/em> the hell out there) were even remotely as good at mobilizing, showing up, and voting as the Republicans are, instead of throwing fits that we don\u2019t have the ideologically perfect candidate and staying home and pouting or giving a \u201cprotest vote\u201d, we\u2019d be in far better shape. We might even have an ideological center that\u2019s closer to the center, instead of a left-wing party that\u2019s in line with other nations\u2019 right-wing parties, and a right-wing party that\u2019s determined to out-Hitler Hitler.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t like Biden? That\u2019s fine. You don\u2019t have to like him. But please recognize that with a Biden administration, you\u2019ll have the freedom to make your complaints known, and hopefully affect the system and make change. That won\u2019t be an option if Trump wins again. If nothing else, vote for the party you\u2019ll have a better chance fighting against.<\/p>\n<p>And maybe eventually this will feel like a holiday worth celebrating once more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe eventually this will feel like a holiday worth celebrating once more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2043,2042],"tags":[5932,1396,363],"class_list":["post-51301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-politics","tag-biden","tag-trump","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51303,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51301\/revisions\/51303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}