Midterms have exploded participation records

In the previous two midterm elections, President Obama often said, “Don’t boo, vote!” Not enough Democrats listened to his words and went to the polls in 2010 and 2014. The houses of Congress went further right with each election.

This year, Obama doesn’t even have to be out there for more Democrats to be at least registered to vote. The numbers of early votes and mail-in votes has skyrocketed. Thirty million early votes have been cast as of Monday, November 5, the day before election day.

Yet, President Obama is out there, campaigning in Florida and Georgia, where Oprah campaigned for Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Stacy Abrams. Race is the biggest issue in George and Florida. The Democratic candidates in both gubernatorial races are African-Americans and both GOP campaigns are going Trump in their advertising — he’s out there spewing out his racist slogans.

Obama has also been here in Orange County, CA campaigning for Democratic candidates for Congress … Wait, OC is GOP country, isn’t it?

Apparently it is kinda purple and swinging towards blue. Calling Mexicans rapists and criminals, and Hispanics in general, as being part of an invasion brings a lot of people out to the polls, whether it be by early vote or physically showing up to the voting sites.

Which, in Southern California, means many, many eligible Latino voters. The Democratic Party would like to thank Mr. Trump. You have energized the Democratic base, who rarely get energized for midterm elections. Democrats ought to reach out to the Hispanic community here. Just sayin’ …

The Democratic base is coming out all over the United States to vote and the former president — and his wife — are doing their part to help. Everyone remembers the International Women’s March that occurred the day after President Trump’s inauguration in 2017. They remember the young people from Margery Stoneman Douglas High School who organized and held marches earlier this year after their school was shot up by a crazed guy with an assault weapon. The survivors are still out there organizing and registering young voters … and older voters too I hear.

You want to get more Hispanics to the polls? Start a policy that revokes the passports of Spanish-speaking Americans — people born in the United States — and then setting them up to be deported or prevented from re-entering the U.S.

A friend of mine who is a naturalized American, born in South America, gets angry when I tell her to be careful because Hispanics are being targeted all over the country. It actually started almost 10 years ago when Congress changed the rules and President Bush signed before leaving office. Trump has just taken it to a new level.

As we have seen, night after night, day after day if you watch cable news networks, President Trump is out there stumping for Republicans, calling for the military, 15,000 lately, to come down here on the Southern Border to protect America from this caravan of invaders who are still about 900 miles away. These women and children — and men — trying to find a safer life in the U.S. or maybe even Mexico. Then there was President Trump letting people know the troops should shoot anyone that throws stones at the U.S. border. Yeah, that’s a good visual, shooting women and children. It’s also a war crime if I’m not mistaken.

One of the crazier things Trump has said about this large group of immigrants is that “Middle Easterners” have joined this group to get into the country illegally! So the conspiracy theory is, these “Middle Easters” joined this caravan in Honduras in order to walk most of the 1,200 miles north to the San Ysidro border crossing? Why didn’t they do what people from that region usually do: get a visa and board a plane? “Middle Easterners” is code for “Muslim Terrorists” in case you didn’t get the drift of Trump’s lie.

When asked about that particular lie, the president admitted there was no proof that it was true, “No proof of anything,” he said, “But there could be.”

There could also be aliens from Alpha Centauri as well … there just isn’t any proof of it.

• Also, according to U.S. and International law seeking asylum is a right that cannot be denied so claiming that he will stop refugees from south of the border from seeking asylum is ignorant and racist.

We can expect the Trump Administration to become more aggressive when it comes to targeting Hispanics here in this country, no matter which party comes out on top in the Congressional elections. Trump is a racist after all, and his base is primarily racist as well.

The GOP candidate for Governor in Georgia is also the state’s current Secretary of State. He has taken racially designed voter suppression to a high level. North Dakota is another one and Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp is running for re-election in that state. They have made a new rule that to vote the voter has to have a street address — which then revokes to the right to vote for thousands of Native Americans living on reservations.

It isn’t just Trump’s blatantly racist election slogans that have early voting going through the roof. Most Americans are worried about their health care, specifically families with pre-existing conditions. It is one of the key features of the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare. For the past eight years Republicans have been campaigning to repeal the ACA. Now that Obamacare has become popular because more people are getting covered, especially families with children who have pre-existing illnesses or conditions, and families with girls and women because being someone who gives birth is not a pre-existing condition … well it’s political suicide to campaign against all of that. So now the GOP is claiming it will preserve the ability to get insurance with pre-existing conditions.

Nobody’s buying it. Dozens of votes against it is pretty substantial evidence Republicans have no interest in protecting anyone’s health care, other than their own.

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone had access to the same health care choices as members of Congress? Rhetorical question. I have the V.A., which is great, except that most of we veterans do not get dental care. They need to change that. It’s been talked about but GOP led Congresses have shot it down with voting to diminish funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Their goal for the V.A. medical system is to privatize it so the private sector insurance companies can make a killing on veterans’ health care and vets’ health care can suck as much as the rest of the hoi polloi.

Thirty thousand medical positions in the VA medical system are unfilled because the funding isn’t there. That’s just the actual medical positions. Then there is a need for more people working in administrative positions, like costumer service-type jobs, the people who answer the phones when we call. You know, on most Mondays we get the message, shortly after 7:30 a.m. that there are too many people on hold already so the recorded voice is telling us our call will be ended and we should call back another time. “Delay, deny, hope we die.”

Protecting veterans is a different issue, but this got me started. Maybe Democrats give a shit about veterans. Congressman Scott Peters is running a TV spot in San Diego about helping vets. The San Diego area is almost nothing but vets and their families. Currently serving men and women as well. Semper Fi Camp Pendleton. Hey 32^ndSt Naval Base, Sup?

Oh yeah, this started because President Obama is on the campaign trail for Democratic candidates, talking about the issues that matter, like health care. And President Trump is out there spreading lies, relying on racism to attack the opponents of his GOP candidates and whipping up his base about the caravan! The caravan!

TV pundits are being very careful about how to call the elections tomorrow. They remember 2016. They weren’t wrong entirely. Hillary Clinton got 3 million more votes than the Orange One.

Here’s the one thing about the Democrats that worries me: They are not reaching out to the Hispanic community, just talking for granted they are having anti-Trump sentiments. What they don’t realize is that anti-Trump feeling won’t always convert to votes. Just like the way Clinton took Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania for granted in 2016.

Now I’m making myself depressed. Early voting is way up and there has been over $5 billion spent on this midterm. If it’s true higher voter turnout benefits Democrats than this will be a great election for the Donkey Party.

Jeez, I haven’t even mentioned Trump attacking the men and women who were targeted by the pipe bomber, after the bomber and synagogue murderer were arrested. Nor did I mention his constant attacks on the media. So many issues, so little time. But make time to vote, if you haven’t done so already.