Vote
Has the right gone wrong?
We are born onto preferences (and prejudices). We learn from our parents and are initiated by our state. (Are you blue or red?) We usually vote the way we always vote. We mimic our friends, our neighbors, or the company we keep — for the sake of joining forces. Comrades. When we vote in a congressional race, we vote to protect our assets, our lifestyle, our money. What we really vote for — in a congressional race — is to select someone to write new laws, re-write old ones, and to implement them. I wish this wasn’t a fight, but it is.
Let’s Take a Vote
Laws are written, and re-written then implemented by the (mostly) old men we voted for. That’s right. Old white Christian men, to be more specific. Old white men protecting their investments. Lawmakers bought up by the greatness of the past. But now it seems like they’ve forgotten their own great generation. The great peacemakers. The work accomplished on civil rights, creating peace, and women’s rights. The greatness that was lost in making the new great America.
Re-written, reversed civil laws (degradation of women’s rights, supplying endless wars, and the rise of white supremacy) — if this comes to pass — will be gifted to our younger generation, along with climate change, dying oceans, and food products treated with carcinogens. Let’s not forget the mandatory experimental injections.
The Republicans, the Democrats, and the Burocrates
It’s those we don’t vote for that may have the most pull and sway. The appointed. The judges, military leaders, and the head of the CDC, for instance. All very important entities independent of our elected officials. So what exactly does our vote accomplish? It must be just a popularity statement conveyed to TPTB that most of us prefer the evil empire over the mafia bosses.
What Does This Have to Do with Art?
It’s always been the job of the artist, writer, and musician to tell the story of our culture. The real story. The exposé. Art is being side-stepped in favor of mindless sitcoms and sex scandals. We have gone from the mysteriously evolved virus to the threat of nuclear war. What’s next? … are the aliens coming? Not by foot and boat, but by spaceship. How can anyone believe anything broadcast on that idiot box (as my dad called it)? Truth-speak is being murdered. Will the artist be able to paint a social portrait without fear? Are we destined to comply in creating fake art, on purpose, and fly under the wire?
Vote for Someone You Don’t Hate by Maria Poulos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by contacting artist
