CLOSING ARGUMENT #1: DEMOCRACY IS ON THE BALLOT

Democracy itself is on the ballot. Republicans are out to create one-party rule in America. It’s already happening. Hundreds of voter suppression laws have passed. Partisan gerrymandering continues. Independent state election commissions dissolved. Republican Governors, Secretaries of State, and Legislators will dictate who gets to vote and who counts the votes. In the next presidential election, they even claim the right to discard the popular vote in their state and submit electors of their choosing. This is not political spin. This is not speculation. These are their own stated positions. It is their campaign promise. And if they win, you can bet they will keep that promise. If you want your vote to count in FUTURE elections, you absolutely MUST vote blue in THIS election.

CLOSING ARGUMENT #2: THE ECONOMY

The word “economy” means different things to different people. The term should be banned from political discourse. And yet, voters polled put the (quote) “economy” at the top of their concerns. Let’s get specific. If you’re talking about inflation, yeah, it’s a problem. A global problem. The US inflation rate is lower than most developed countries, much lower than Europe.

To blame Joe Biden and the Democrats is just a joke. Any independent reputable economist will tell you that US government spending DID contribute to inflation – maybe one or two points – far, far outpaced by wage gains. What accounts for the other six or seven points of inflation? Supply chain disruptions from Covid, the war in Ukraine disrupting food distribution, and price gouging from corporations. A forty-year high inflation you say? Well, it’s a FIFTY-YEAR high in corporate profits. How about gas prices? Biden’s energy policy has nothing to do with it. Gas is a global commodity. So, why the high prices? OPEC collusion, Exxon and their buddies are sitting on reserves to keep supply down because they like the high prices – again, record-profits for them, and again – the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

So, no. The Dems are not to blame. But what are they doing about it? Well, they know there’s not much they CAN do about inflation, so they’re attacking it where they can: Lower prescription drugs is about the only tangible thing they can point to. They yell about corporate greed, but haven’t done anything serious about a windfall profits tax or corporate tax rates generally, for that matter. And the Fed is fighting inflation by suppressing wages, trying to jack up unemployment, and causing a recession. The whole system is screwed up.

So, yes – the Democrats suck at this. But if you look at the last fifty plus years, the economy always does better under Democrats. Look it up. For the Republicans to poll better on the economy blows my mind — they are an unmitigated disaster. They continue to peddle the decades-long-debunked lie of “trickle down” where wealth streams rapidly from the poor and middle class to the rich, ever widening the wealth gap. And they’re still married to eliminating every sensible regulation that keeps corporations from killing us even faster than they are.

A Republican vote on Tuesday is economic suicide. Republicans are dedicated to a permanent one-party rule where the rich get richer and the rest of us can eat dirt. The so-called bad economy is NOT the Democrats fault, and they are the only party that at least gives us a chance to fight another day. You absolutely MUST vote Blue, up and down your ballot, on Tuesday.

CLOSING ARGUMENT #3: CRIME & POLICE

Republicans have manufactured “crime” as a top issue for voters in the polls. Let me be blunt – you’ve been had, you’ve been hoodwinked, you’ve been bamboozled. Violent crime rates are, in fact, DOWN in the last year, and still a fraction of the highest rates of nearly thirty years ago from which we’ve seen a steady and precipitous drop. So, like much of the Republicans pitch – it’s just an outright lie. Homicides HAVE jumped in the last two years, but it’s got nothing at all to do with the Democrats “soft on crime” fairytale. It has nothing to do with “defund the police” which no Democratic candidate seriously endorses and which no Democratic office holder has enacted. In fact, police budgets have INCREASED under Democrats.

And, it has nothing to do with the bogus “cash bail” argument, a manufactured Republican talking point that has no basis in fact whatever. Or on a state board that paroles a guy who killed his girlfriend in a crime of passion in 1971 and is now, like 80! My entire state is not in mortal danger cause Grandpa shooter was sent home to die in his own bed.

In fact, when it comes to homicide, rates are higher in states and cities with Republican governors and mayors. Except for the purple states of New Mexico and Georgia (that come in seven and eight) the top ten murder rates are all in states that voted for Trump. So, blaming democrats for crime and murder is just bunk. I don’t like crime any more than you do, and we should take effective measures to combat it, but this is not the issue to drive your vote. Especially when Republican arguments are based on blatant lies. Vote Blue up and down your ballot.  

CLOSING ARGUMENT #4: REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

I’m not going to make the case for abortion. You already have your opinion and I am not going to change it. But I will say this: If you are among the eighty to ninety percent of Americans who believe the choice of whether to end a pregnancy should be legal in at least SOME cases, you must vote Blue in this election. If there are to be “reasonable” limitations on abortion they can be sorted out later. Don’t tell me about “inflation” or “crime” or any of the other trumped-up issues the Republicans have convinced you to be scared about. This is the fundamental human right of bodily autonomy for God’s sake!

Should your ten-year-old daughter be forced by the government to give birth to her rapist’s baby? Should a doctor go to jail for providing care if your life is in danger due to medical complications – at any stage of a pregnancy? The Roe decision was wrongly decided and indefensible by any legal or moral standard. This is the modern-day Republican Party and its disregard for individual privacy and dignity. And if they win at the polls, it will only get worse from here. You have a moral duty to vote Blue up and down your ballot on Tuesday. Please vote!

CLOSING ARGUMENT #5: LEGALIZED BIGOTRY

The Supreme Court Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v Wade was based on the specious notion that there is no de facto right to privacy in the United States Constitution. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his opinion that marriage rights and LGBTQ+ rights, generally, are open to legal rollbacks based on this decision. Make no mistake, the Republican Party, and the conservative supermajority they have installed on the Supreme Court, are not through when it comes to taking away rights.

Republican state houses and a Republican Congress are coming after marginalized Americans. If they regain the Senate, they will continue to pack the courts with right-wing judges to help finish the job. In the name of “states’ rights” and “religious liberty” discrimination and prejudice based on race, religion, and gender will flourish. If they retake the House, Marjorie Taylor Greene will be the de facto Leader, because Speaker McCarthy will have no power to reign her in. She’s a top tier fundraiser, face of the MAGA base, and a possible Trump running mate. The GOP’s dream of White Christian Nationalism will be realized in a body of law filled with codified bigotry. This is not a legitimate national party. They have aligned with other authoritarians like Putin and Erdogan in Turkey. Please help to stop them. Please vote on Tuesday – Blue, up and down your ballot. 

CLOSING ARGUMENT #6: THE CLIMATE CRISIS

Have you noticed in the barrage of political ads and speeches that literally NO one is talking about the climate crisis? Why? Because when voters are polled about their top issues, it doesn’t even crack the top ten. Well, let’s pretend for a second that you care about the future of the planet. Which party should you vote for? Certainly not the Republicans. With their denial of the science and allegiance to the fossil fuel industry, your vote for the GOP, on every level of your ballot, is a vote for an uninhabitable Earth for millions of people in our lifetime. That’s why you absolutely MUST vote blue on Tuesday. I’ll be honest. The Democrats suck on this issue. But at least they give us a fighting chance. Vote on Tuesday like your life depends on it. Because it does. Vote Blue!

CLOSING ARGUMENT #7: SOCIAL SECURITY & MEDICARE

I don’t have to put political spin on my arguments against Republicans in this election. They come right out and tell us what they will do if they win a majority. One of the most alarming is their decades-long ambition to kill Social Security and Medicare. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has called Social Security “a Ponzi scheme.” He and his fellow Republicans would reduce benefits, raise eligibility requirements, and worst of all, change the status of both Social Security and Medicare to programs that would face a vote for elimination every couple of years. This is not merely boring, wonky political stuff, this is the security of millions of Americans, put on the chopping block.

Social Security provides benefits that you have earned. It has been the most efficient and popular government program for nearly a century. The current Republican Party is off the rails. They are dangerous. You MUST vote Blue up and down your ballot on Tuesday. 

CLOSING ARGUMENT #8: POLITICAL VIOLENCE 

Political violence is increasing at a frightening rate. The latest being the attack on the husband of Nancy Pelosi in their San Francisco home. The attacker, by his own statement, was looking for the Speaker to zip tie her, interrogate her, and break her knee caps as a brutal message to Democrats in Washington. Public office holders at all levels are getting daily death threats by the dozens. Poll workers, activists, and everyday citizens are in increasing danger.

And this is NOT a both-sides-do-it story. You can’t both-sides this issue. Over the last few years, a full seventy five percent of acts of political violence were committed by right-wingers. Fueled by Republican rhetoric at worst, and tacit silence, at best. The violence of January sixth was not spontaneous, it was part of the plan, it was coordinated and led by organized militia groups with full knowledge and participation of Republican operatives. The Republican Party here in the United States now has an authorized armed faction. There is no other way to put it. The only hope for GOP reform at this point (if there is hope) is for them to be defeated so soundly at the polls that they have no choice but to reform or fold. It is imperative that you vote Blue, up and down your ballot, on Tuesday.

CLOSING ARGUMENT #9: TRUMP IS ON THE BALLOT

Conservative commentators on the Sunday shows like to say that Donald Trump is not on the ballot. Not true! Donald Trump is most definitely on the ballot. Because every election denier is a proxy for Trump. And there are hundreds across the country. Every Republican vote is a vote for the Party that will nominate Donald Trump as their 2024 presidential candidate. There is no stopping him now. He will run – he has all but announced it. And he will be the 2024 Republican candidate for President.

Republican secretaries of state will do everything in their power to control election results in their states, Republican legislators will send Trump electors to Washington regardless of their state’s vote tallies, and Republican governors will certify those electors. And if they are successful in putting him back in the white house, his second term will make his first term look like a walk in the park.

So, don’t kid yourself. Donald Trump is on your ballot. Every ‘R’ on your ballot is a proxy for Donald Trump. That’s why you MUST vote Blue, up and down your ballot, on Tuesday.

CLOSING ARGUMENT #10: THE DEMOCRATIC STRAWMAN

We all know the Big Lie, believed by most Republicans, that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen. But there’s an even bigger lie out there. And the Bigger Lie is… that the Democratic Party is filled with evil Leftist, Communist woke radicals who want to destroy America. They want to indoctrinate your children into changing their genders and hating white people. Democrats want to deny free speech to everyone except themselves. They are snobby big city elites who want to take away your truck, erase your heritage, and cancel Christmas. And worst of all, they’re coming after your money. They want to take your hard-earned paycheck and give it to lazy people for lying on the couch… and open wide the Southern border and give every illegal immigrant a big wad of cash, a job, free health and dental, an iPhone, a car, and a nice place to live.  

I challenge you to find a single Democratic office holder or candidate that comes anywhere near this description. You can’t because they don’t exist. The Republicans have invented this Strawman Democrat and convinced millions of Americans that they are real. GOP candidates and Fox News hosts find crazy anecdotal stories about extreme wokeism from obscure corners of the country and then use them to represent The Democrats. And calling Democrats Communists, or even Socialists, is beyond ridiculous. By any objective world standard Democrats are moderate centrists. Bernie Sanders is conservative on guns. Even Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s Green New Deal relies entirely on private enterprise and maintaining corporate profits.

So, portraying The Democratic Party as wild-eyed wokes and communists is a ridiculous lie. A very successful lie. And it is the most dangerous lie. Because once millions of conservative Americans believe in this evil, what else are they to do but destroy it – at any cost – even with political violence. Even at the cost of free and fair elections, minority rights, and the rule of law, institutions that used to define America.

When asked by pollsters, people from both sides say the other party is destroying America. Republicans answer yes because they believe in the Biggest Lie. Democrats answer yes because they see clearly how far Republicans are willing to go to stop them, even if it means pushing a teetering 246-year-old Democracy off the cliff.

Charles Bursell has been heard nationally on SiriusXM, National Public Radio, and The Pacifica Radio Network. He currently hosts the weekly podcast The Log.

Contact: charlesbursell@gmail.com. Follow on Facebook and Twitter @charlesbursell.