"Voting Matters"

I'm here because voting matters. Why else would our circus animal in the White House go so far out of his way to steal the last election?
But even when the national races smell like a stage managed cartoon contest between tweedle-dum and tweedle-dumber, local elections are where it is at. Mayor, city council, county commissioners, school boards, sheriffs, state legislators- these are the people who decide in our back yards how to spend our tax money collected by Washington and the states. Should we build a homeless shelter or a golf course? Computers for poor kids or pollute science classes with the Bible?
So few people vote in local elections, that when good candidates run and we show up, there's a very good chance of winning. If we don't show up Bushcroft bozos and Christian-Coalition-types run things instead.
Paying attention and showing up to vote is also crucial because of ballot initiatives. Where would rent control, medical marijuana, living wage laws, etc.., be unless people like us show up? We are lucky we have the right to ballot initiatives. Canada & Europe don't. My favorite is the sheer joy of voting down sports stadiums.
I'm all for insurrection in the street. But it doesn't accomplish much without insurrection at the ballot box. So why not use it?
Being patriotic doesn't mean blindly following a criminal president into illegal and dangerous wars. It means doing our part to take our country back from corrupt corporate puppets that get into office because we sit on our butt and let them.