PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

“They tell you who to vote for.”
by stephen donahue Friday, Sep. 24, 2004 at 7:59 AM

Limiting ballot access and telling me who I got to vote for pisses me off

I was in Catholic grade school in the early 1960s. Back then a good Catholic education included a regular regimen of anti communist brow beating. Too young to really know what communism was, we were nonetheless told that communists tortured and killed Catholics and that they spit on the sacred host. In prayer we implored St. Michael the Archangel to “rebuke” the Satan who controlled Russia, China, Cuba and the lands behind the Iron Curtain.

In geography class we were told about how the communists staged fake elections for the people over whom they ruled. We were told that communist leaders would hold elections but that it did not matter who you voted for since everybody who ran for office was the same. We were also told that under communism a person was told who to vote for.

I think about those school day anti-red diatribes a lot these days. I think of them every time I hear about the Democratic Party fighting like hell to get a candidate kicked off the ballot. I was reminded of those lectures recently when on the news I heard a Democratic Party operative justify efforts to kick Ralph Nader off the ballot by saying that all “progressives” had to join in unity behind John Kerry. He kept repeating this mantra: “All progressives must unite behind John Kerry, unite behind John Kerry, behind John Kerry…” My blood began to boil. In my mind’s eye I once more saw the stern and wrinkled face of old Sister Rita, “they tell you who to vote for… everybody on the ballot is the same… they tell you who to vote for… who to vote for… they’re all the same.”

I am sick of being taken hostage by the Demon-rats every four years. All they can ever say is “vote for us or you will get somebody worse.” Handed the choice between Bush and Bush Lite, I will go…well I will go to the toilet.

For those who say that I am looking for the ideal-pure-lefty candidate, you got me wrong. I am just mad as hell about being told who to vote for. I won’t goose step behind any candidate or any political party. I want REAL choices on the ballot and lots of them.
Please don’t waste my time with a nuance of the two candidate’s health care programs or even their stand in the atrocious occupation of Iraq. Give me choices. Don’t give me only two candidates and then tell me who I got to vote for.

Maybe on November 2, I will just write in 1960s icon Nikita Khrushchev for president.

Hey Sister Rita, will I go to hell if I write in a dead host desecrating atheistic communist for President of the USA?

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