Mid-term elections will happen in a few days. George Reinhart talks about why you should care. 

Why is it important for Pagans in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware to at least vote in the election coming up in November, or preferably go out and work on it?

Well, here are some quotes to consider:

Do you know how many hate groups are currently active in your area, your neighborhood? Did you also know that most hate crimes occur in the Northern and Western areas of the United States and not in the Southern states as many incorrectly assume. For example, Pennsylvania hosted more Klan rallies in the 1990s than Alabama did.¹

The Public Expression of Religion Act, introduced by Indiana Congressman John Hostettler, now will move to the full House for a vote, he said in his announcement this week.
"This is a big victory for Americans who care about our rich religious heritage in this country," he said. "There is a lot of excitement about this bill."
"The American Legion has fought for reform of the attorney fee provisions of federal law which the ACLU has exploited to reap millions of dollars in taxpayer-paid attorney fees in Establishment Clause cases," Lloyd's statement said.
He said the ACLU has used the threat of the fees as 'a club' to bludgeon local elected bodies into surrendering to the ACLU's "secular cleansing demands."
The plan came about after the ACLU, "the Taliban of American liberal secularism," according to Lloyd, sued to tear down a cross on a rock outcrop erected by veterans as a memorial to World War I veterans in 1934 in the remote Mojave Desert.²

Am I saying that we're about to overtaken by hate groups? That the ACLU is about to be wiped out? No, I'm not. But I am saying that the time is a critical one. Things actually were somewhat worse in 2004, being rather more one-sided. Right now things are a critical balance, with control of the Senate and the House very much in play. It will become pretty obvious which side I am on, but whichever side you're on, your vote and your work really matter right now!

Why should you care which party holds either house of Congress? They're all birds of a feather and basically crooked, right? Well, yes, that probably is right. But what keeps things on track, as the Founders well realized in 1789 as the Constitution was being hammered out, is the famous "checks and balances." That means not having all the power held in the same hands, as it now is.

Specifically for Pennsylvania (I know considerably less about other states), consider who the Senate candidates are. Casey and Santorum. Both strong Christians, so in that there's little to choose between them. But they do differ. Santorum is a very strong Bush supporter, whether religiously, economically, or on "the war on terrorism."  Casey takes a strongly different tack, at least on economic issues. He's definitely pro-labor, and is much less in favor of the current administration's attitude to globalization. He's also convinced that we need actual allies and that we are alienating the world right now. He's also a lot stronger supporter of civil rights, as opposed to the administration's insistence that it has to be able to lock up anyone (even you!) who might somehow be a "supporter of terrorism." That could easily mean anyone who happens to disagree with the current administration. This sort of thing has happened before: Think of how many lives were ruined by Joseph McCarthy during his quest to root out "Communists"  in the 1950s.³ I am not saying that the current administration is fascist (though the word has been much misused lately, as in "Islamofascism"), but we might be at the thin edge of the wedge, where the industrialists (Halliburton, anyone?) and the government begin to merge and take over.

Fascism is a radical political ideology that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism.⁴

Does anything in that quote sound familiar?

And right now as I write this, various things are happening that honestly ought to make all of us nervous:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday gave final approval to a bill for tough interrogation and prosecution of terrorism suspects, as President George W. Bush prevailed after a series of setbacks on his detainee policies.
The Senate passed the bill 65-34, hours after Bush was on Capitol Hill urging Republicans to stay behind the high-profile measure ahead of November 7 elections that will determine control of Congress.
The House of Representatives passed the same measure on Wednesday and must make a technical change to reconcile it with the Senate's. Bush was expected to sign it soon afterward.⁵

and...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would provide congressional authorization for President George W. Bush's warrantless domestic spying program but subject it to new rules.
With a court battle waging over the program's legality, the House, controlled by Bush's fellow Republicans, approved the measure on a largely party-line vote of 232-191, and sent it to the Senate for needed concurrence.
The Senate, however, has been unable to agree on such legislation, preventing Bush from getting a final measure to sign into law before members of Congress go home to campaign for the November 7 elections. That had been a top Republican goal.⁶  

Looked at from a Pagan perspective, with a government that seems firmly convinced that this is "a Christian nation", I think we should all worry. And work at doing something about it while we can.

So what might happen next?

CHICAGO - Emboldened by the anti-abortion movement's success in restricting access to abortion, an increasingly vocal group of Christian conservatives is arguing that it's time to mount a concerted attack on contraception.
Their voices were raised in Rosemont, Illinois, last week at an unusual anti-abortion meeting that drew 250 people from around the nation to condemn artificial birth control. Experts at the gathering assailed contraception on the grounds that it devalues children, harms relationships between men and women, promotes sexual promiscuity and leads to falling birth rates, among social ills.⁷

And please keep in mind the Salem witch trials:

By the time the frenzy was over, 19 people had been hanged and four more perished in the dungeon. It ended when the girls accused the wife of the Massachusetts governor of witchcraft. He promptly shut the vigilante court down and emptied the dungeon.
But it is still good to visit this place, especially if one leaves with a tiny, disquieting thought - if it could happen there, then, it could happen elsewhere, since. And has.⁸

And it's obviously not just in Pennsylvania. In New Jersey, "Easy race for Senate now seen as close"⁹ is another warning:  If you want your opinion to matter, you have to vote. Otherwise you're just blowing hot air. In Delaware, the 2000 elections saw Tom Caper, a Democrat elected to the Senate -- the first time in 60 years that Delaware had two Democratic senators. He's defending his seat against Republican Jan Ting, a law professor who has never held elected office.

And every single U.S. House seat in the country is up for grabs! Don't forget that. It matters, folks. Only 15 out of 435 seats will swing the House, just as 6 out of 100 will swing the Senate.  Whichever side you are on, don't let it happen without you.

Editor's Note: As a nonprofit organization, DVPN does not endorse any particular party or candidate in this or any other election. The author's views are his own and do not represent those of DVPN. But we do want you to get your butts out there and vote.

Notes:

¹ Are There Hate Groups in Your Neighborhood?  From Susan Pizarro-Eckert, Your Guide to Race Relations, About.com.   http://tinyurl.com/ekny5
² World Net Daily, "Plan to cut ACLU money pipeline advances",  http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51907
³ Wikipedia,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthy_Era
⁴ Wikipedia,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
⁵ Reuters,  http://tinyurl.com/n5erq
⁶ Reuters,  http://tinyurl.com/nuwbv
⁷ The State.com, South Carolina's Home Page,  http://tinyurl.com/m7epr
⁸ Lynchburg News & Advance, September 27, 2006,  http://tinyurl.com/rkfs5
⁹ Donna De La Cruz (AP), Sept. 30, 2006  http://tinyurl.com/ovy43

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