“There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship.” Ralph Nader
It’s election time and we must prepare the good ship “Common Sense” for boarding by pirates of every political hue.
So there they are, on the campaign trail, prospective Members of Parliament smiling like the after photo in a dental decay advert. Fervent men and women adopting every variety of physical and mental contortion to convince us of their absolute sincerity when instructing us that a cross in the box beside their name on the ballot paper will undoubtedly lead to salvation.
And finally, the power and the glory will be theirs. All theirs!
The thing is, none of this makes any difference because in the history of elections and governments and promises and pledges even if one or other party promised and swore on the Baby Lord Jesus’ own special book that they’ll give every man-jack of us a million pounds each when they win, there will still be people voting for politicians who kill foxes, murder foreign children, tear apart the geology of Wales and Yorkshire and kick every old person really, really hard in the bits that hurt the most whilst giving stupidly rich people even more money so they can buy the 10% of the planet they don’t already own.
So, what’s the point? The trouble is if you don’t vote at all you’re still voting for them and I would rather vote against them than do nothing.
© Rod McRiven 2017
Postcard by: Christine Sun Kim
Photo by: Franco Antonio Giovanella
