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Monday, April 13, 2020

Something Good

This is just the start of what -- if it's even remotely successful -- will be a long and excruciating process. But it's an important start. Nicely done, Wisconsin.

It's easy to get cynical about the country in general, and shenanigans baked into the electoral process in particular. I think I'm more guilty of that than most people, and I'm sure I'll be back to it soon enough.

But last week's vote was something special. They closed down literally 97% of the voting precincts in Milwaukee, and then told everyone to go out and wait in line for hours, in order to cast a vote in the middle of a plague.

And they did it, the voters of Wisconsin. They showed up, they stayed in line, and they bloody well did it. They deserve huge credit, and hopefully this serves as an object lesson for all of us in November, because we all know they'll pull this same shit again, and worse.

The old Emma Goldman saying is that if voting really mattered, they wouldn't let us do it. And it certainly feels like that much of the time. But once in a while, it's nice to be reminded of the counter to that narrative:  if it didn't matter, they wouldn't keep having to cheat so hard.

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