I have always worn my little I Voted sticker with pride; I’m a total nerd, and I own it. But these last three years, I have not – simply because I have voted by mail. The decision to vote by mail was prompted by three things: 1) The desire to avoid crowded places during the COVID pandemic, 2) The desire to be able to sit at my computer with my ballot reviewing the candidates and propositions online, 3) My desire to poke my thumb in the eye of voter-fraud claiming repubes. Ah, that feels so good.
Susan and I received our mail-in ballots a couple of days ago, and today, we filled them out. Tomorrow, I will mail them. I will do so while doing my best to maintain the faith that De Joy’s political flying monkeys won’t do everything in their power to harvest my ballot and deposit it in the Austin landfill. I don’t mean to be paranoid, but a couple of weeks ago, I went to a nearby blue mailbox to mail my 3rd quarterly IRS payment only to find that the box had been vandalized. The box had been the victim of a vicious crowbar attack. Barbarians!
A brief digression: The word vandalism refers to the Vandals – a Germanic people who during the 3rd Century had interactions with the Huns, the Romans, and others. The word barbarian derives from a Greek word that refers to people who did not speak Greek – the Berber, Germanic, and Celtic tribes among others.
Get Out and Vote! It’s the only way that we can keep the Vandals, Barbarians, and Republicans that are at democracy’s gates at bay.