Forget the Silver Lining

This feels weird since I published the book Rena's Silver Lining, a novel that focused on finding silver linings. 

BUT, although I'm relieved that all was not lost in the 2018 midterm elections, I'm not going to silently watch people sugarcoat the fact that this country is still--and will be for a long time--in the hands of fascists, or that we are living with people who vote for fascists, traitors, liars, and cheats who incite violence and foster inequality. 

I won't be comfortable with people talking today, when we still haven't counted all of the votes that were cast for yesterday's election, about the next election. And when we know that many people stood in lines for hours, and some people had to leave after standing in line because they didn't get to vote and either couldn't stand any longer or had to leave to get to work, or to pick up a child from school, or because they needed to use the bathroom or take medication . . . And we know many were turned away because they had been removed from registration or their names didn't match or they had moved. We know people were gerrymandered out of their votes, there were districts with electronic voting machines and no electricity, humidity mysteriously caused ballots in some districts to not feed through the machines . . .  We KNOW we did not have a fair election and haven't had for decades. 

Don't even talk about the next election until we have done something to secure our elections. I believe that means we must do away with electronics. Everyone should vote on paper ballots that will be hand-counted by humans who are moderated, with no election results released or discussed by media until after every vote has been counted and the results validated by moderators. (Moderators who are not Russians.)

These things are NOT OKAY, and can't be hidden behind silver linings. They must be kept out in the open, addressed, and fought with the same rabid focus people had on the blue wave. 

Elections aren't a game that ends on Election Night.

And if people are seriously interested in speaking the language that Republicans hear, we need to not spend a cent on anything that isn't a bare necessity. $$ is their language.  2016 should have been the real war on Christmas, when we shut everything down until that election was thoroughly investigated. Since it didn't happen then, 2018 would be a good time to start. NO SPENDING until we have answers and our government is cleared of politicians who are under investigation.