On May 8, 2012, I am going to a polling station in Charlotte, NC, to cast a vote against taking people’s rights away. That’s right, there’s an amendment on the ballot designed to remove certain rights from certain people and the only way to stop it from happening is to vote against it. How something like this is even up for a vote in America in 2012 is beyond me.

I’m not going to write about which people this proposed amendment discriminates against, because, unless you live under a rock, you probably already know. But the fact that North Carolina is now in the business of identifying certain citizens as unworthy of basic rights makes me embarrassed.

Everyone I know is against the amendment. But then, I live in the largest city in a southern state. A state that voted Democrat for the first time in a million years in the 2008 Presidential election – largely due to the turnout in Charlotte. However, the sad fact is that even if we get the entire population of Charlotte to vote against Amendment One, it’s still likely to pass. And the reason will be a combination of ignorance and power.

When NC went to the Democrats in the 2008 Presidential election, a lot of people were angry. Not in Charlotte, mind you, but in most other places. This is the South, by God, and we like our politics conservative. Just like how we like most every other thing in our lives conservative. We don’t need any fast-talking Yankees telling us how to do our business down here. 2008 was an anomaly. And one way to prove that is to rise up against one of the common enemies of conservatism and remove the rights of people who aren’t like us. It’s a harbinger of what will happen in November – despite the DNC party in Charlotte.

Look, everyone wants to think they’re right about most decisions they make in life. Me, you, everyone. So when things don’t go our way, based on what we believe is right, it feels like we’ve lost control. Another term for this is powerlessness. Powerlessness is not an easy concept for most of us to accept – and power (or fear of losing it) is a major reason why almost all (ok, all) politicians undercut each other instead of working together. Vote for me because I’m more conservative than the other guy. Vote for me because I’m going to battle the other party tooth and nail. Vote for me because I’m just like you and share your views on the world. I’m sorry, but NO ONE you vote for is like you. They’re all rich kids who learned how to game the system and say the right things to get you to vote for them. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is. It’s a power play. And for the most part, these political power plays are here to stay in America. We are not a nation of compromisers. We’re a nation of fighters – so when we don’t have a common enemy, we turn against each other. And on May 8th, we are going to turn against a minority of the population to ensure that the sanctity of conservative thinking remains intact. We don’t care about how it will affect the minority; nor do we care what removing the rights of certain people could do to a workforce that may be on the fence about coming to this state to contribute to our mutual livelihood. We don’t care. We just want power. And we want to know we’re right.

I’m voting against this bullshit on May 8th. I can’t believe I even have to do this.

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Jim Mitchem

Drilling for Oil in America
Don't Read Too Much Into This

Jim Mitchem

Writer. Father to daughters. Husband. Ad man. Raised by wolves. @jmitchem on twitter. First novel, Minor King, out now.

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