Right off the bat - no spoiler warning necessary - let me state the obvious. I’m a proud progressive liberal. I like being on the right side of history and morality. I realize this will annoy and anger some of my readers. I’d like to think that, if they stick around, they will recognize that my positions are good for the country and the world. Failing that, I hope they will, at least, accept there is a legitimate other side and that we don’t hate America or want to destroy it. I don’t even want to take away all your guns.
I have written several “Citizen Tony” bloggy things over the years. The first one was in August 2016 and, from that column, I’ve lifted today’s opening paragraph. I am not as naive today as I was when I believed there could be respectful common ground that would lead us to good decisions. Trump got elected president and my country went to Hell. I’m still hopeful we can repair the damage willingly inflected on the United States by the Republican Party, but it will be a long hard struggle.
The most important thing we can do to truly make out country great again is to vote and not vote Republican. I’m not going to proclaim there are no decent Republicans out there. However, let’s face the indisputable fact that most of them have lost any claim to personal decency and honor by backing Trump no matter what awful things he does, by actively working to discriminate against those not like them, by trying to game our elections via voter suppression, by passing laws to benefit the 1% over all others, by refusing to take action against gun violence in our land, by neglecting to protect our environment, by neglecting our military and, gee whiz, it would take a dozen bloggy things to cover all the sins that can be laid at the doorstep of the Republican party.
I used to vote on Election Day at the Medina Recreation Center just a block away from my house. I stopped doing that after many years of being harassed by a Republican who worked there. For years, he would do his best to get my goat. The last time I voted there, I’d had enough. I told him to cut the crap and just do his job without commenting.
He exploded in rage. He yelled that I shouldn’t even be allowed to vote. One of his fellow workers dragged him away from his station.As he left, I looked him in his wild eyes and told him that, after I voted, my next job would be to get him fired.
Which I did. I called the Board of Elections and they canned him. I’m told they later reinstated him and moved him to another polling place. Stupid as it was, it didn’t matter to me. I had already decided to go to the Board of Elections and vote early from then on.
In my way too Republican city, I’m rarely proud of Medina’s office holders. However, I was very proud when Medina City Council, by a bipartisan vote, approved anti-discrimination protections for our LGBT fellow citizens. Medina is a Trump town, complete with all of that disgusting individual’s bigotry and racism.
Almost immediately after that anti-discrimination law was voted on, the forces of bigotry hit the street. They went door to door trying to get signatures to put killing the law on the ballot. I screamed at the bigot who came to my door and, when said fucking bigot tried to claim she wasn’t a bigot - she only wanted to let people vote on it because that’s the right way to do it - I threatened to call the police on her for trespassing after she’d been told to get the fuck off my property.
I have written several “Citizen Tony” bloggy things over the years. The first one was in August 2016 and, from that column, I’ve lifted today’s opening paragraph. I am not as naive today as I was when I believed there could be respectful common ground that would lead us to good decisions. Trump got elected president and my country went to Hell. I’m still hopeful we can repair the damage willingly inflected on the United States by the Republican Party, but it will be a long hard struggle.
The most important thing we can do to truly make out country great again is to vote and not vote Republican. I’m not going to proclaim there are no decent Republicans out there. However, let’s face the indisputable fact that most of them have lost any claim to personal decency and honor by backing Trump no matter what awful things he does, by actively working to discriminate against those not like them, by trying to game our elections via voter suppression, by passing laws to benefit the 1% over all others, by refusing to take action against gun violence in our land, by neglecting to protect our environment, by neglecting our military and, gee whiz, it would take a dozen bloggy things to cover all the sins that can be laid at the doorstep of the Republican party.
I used to vote on Election Day at the Medina Recreation Center just a block away from my house. I stopped doing that after many years of being harassed by a Republican who worked there. For years, he would do his best to get my goat. The last time I voted there, I’d had enough. I told him to cut the crap and just do his job without commenting.
He exploded in rage. He yelled that I shouldn’t even be allowed to vote. One of his fellow workers dragged him away from his station.As he left, I looked him in his wild eyes and told him that, after I voted, my next job would be to get him fired.
Which I did. I called the Board of Elections and they canned him. I’m told they later reinstated him and moved him to another polling place. Stupid as it was, it didn’t matter to me. I had already decided to go to the Board of Elections and vote early from then on.
In my way too Republican city, I’m rarely proud of Medina’s office holders. However, I was very proud when Medina City Council, by a bipartisan vote, approved anti-discrimination protections for our LGBT fellow citizens. Medina is a Trump town, complete with all of that disgusting individual’s bigotry and racism.
Almost immediately after that anti-discrimination law was voted on, the forces of bigotry hit the street. They went door to door trying to get signatures to put killing the law on the ballot. I screamed at the bigot who came to my door and, when said fucking bigot tried to claim she wasn’t a bigot - she only wanted to let people vote on it because that’s the right way to do it - I threatened to call the police on her for trespassing after she’d been told to get the fuck off my property.
Much to my delight and even surprise, the bigots didn’t get enough signatures to make it to the ballot. They did ask they be allowed more time than allowed by law to get more signatures because, you know, Jesus.
Their Plan B was to run unqualified candidates against the Council members who voted for the anti-discrimination legislation. What a pack of jackals they put on the ballot!
The bigot running against my councilperson has but two items on his platform. The first is to overturn the legislation. The second is to kill more deer.
Medina does thin the herds from time to time, using trained hunters to do so. Since the deers roam areas in backyards and in woods that back up to schools and sports fields, we need professionals to do that thinning. There are those non-professionals who want to get in on the fun of killing deer. What could go wrong?
When I voted, I voted for Bill Lamb for Member of Council at Large and Dennie R. Simpson, to represent my Ward 2 in Council. Both of them courageously backed the non-discrimination legislation. Lamb, in particular, has served Medina well for many years.
There are three candidates running for two open spots on the Medina Board of Education. I voted for Keith A. Rasey, the only Democrat among those running. I could have voted for a second candidate, but it’s important to get Rasey on the board. I only voted for him this time around.
There were three tax levies on the ballot. I voted for all of them. I had to grit my teeth to do so. The levies will provide valuable services to some of Medina’s most in need citizens. My dismay comes from knowing we wouldn’t need these levies if Medina didn’t spend stupid money on things like a excessively splendid new courthouse and other eye candy for the elites who run our city.
I have more “Citizen Tony” columns in the works, but next up will be my reports on the Fanboy Expo 2.0 in Knoxville, Tennessee, and what the fans, guests and promoters should expect from convention venues and hotels.
I’ll be back soon with more stuff.
© 2019 Tony Isabella
Deena and I are heading to the courthouse today to early vote. I've taken an extreme dislike to the scavengers who hang around our usual polling venue.
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