Eight in NoJoMo 2016

Election Day. Write about your votes.

I’ll go in reverse order, because it’s more interesting that way. Further, I expect all of my positions to be defeated. This is not at all uncommon.

There was an amendment tinkering once again with the Virginia tax laws to excuse more people narrowly from paying taxes. If I was a good Democrat(TM), I’d say, “their fair share.”

The entire tax system needs overhaul in the Commonwealth. More targeted tax cuts for specific people. No. The same thing applies to the Federal system. I paid more in Federal Income Tax (not fucking payroll taxes) in 2009 than I grossed in 2002. Why? I didn’t rent a house from the bank in 2006 that I couldn’t afford. Similarly, I pay for my health insurance with after-tax dollars, and have since I was laid off for the second time in three years in early 2014. During the “Great Recession,” it’d gotten to the point where more than half of people who filed taxes paid absolutely nothing.

To the people who’d be “helped” by this proposal, I’m sorry for your situation; it sucks. But for every dollar you don’t pay, someone else should pay an extra one. Whether or not that’s actually happening is another matter. Eventually, it will have to be paid.

Stop with these stupid token things, and fix the bigger issues. Some of your supporters may actually end up having to pay taxes. Some rich people might end up paying more. Whatever. Do the right thing.

The next amendment was about adding the principles of right-to-work to the Virginia Constitution. I, somewhat reluctantly, voted for this amendment. You shouldn’t have to join a coercive organization in order to work somewhere.

Organized Labor, especially the AFL-CIO, is vehemently opposed to more formalization of right-to-work. That, by itself, might have made me enough to vote for this. At the same time, I’m not a shallow Republican or Democrat, so that’s not enough. One of the things the Democrats have been hammering this year is problems with the “gig economy.”

Your health insurance should be tied to your job. (And if you can’t work full-time in an office, you should be a charity case.)
You shouldn’t be able to use your car to drive people around.
You shouldn’t be able to let people stay in your awesome place while you’re going to be away.

If you agree with those things, I hope you’re probably against the amendment, and support the mainstream Democrat candidates. The new Chrysler, which the US Supreme Court tore up 200 years’ worth of bankruptcy law to create, has only four pay bands. If you have a job there, you will pay a big portion of your salary to the union thugs, and never move up beyond the top band. Good shit. But, hey, after 30 years, you get a watch.

Similarly, for the House of Representatives, after the Supreme Court essentially reversed its 1993 decision on majority-minority districts, there’s actually a Republican running against my Representative (who’s been there since 1993). I voted for him, despite knowing that he’ll probably still lose. So said Mark Twain, “[p]oliticians are like diapers; they need to be changed often and for the same reason.”

Do I think Rep. Scott is doing a terrible job? No. At the same time, he’s been there for longer than some of the voters have been alive. I also was very encouraged by him signing on to Rep. Ellison’s bill significantly curtailing the mortgage interest deduction. Although I’d go farther with it, I’d also add to that an absolute 30-year limit to using it.

The days of buying a 2500 ft.’ McMansion are over. People want to live in cities. They don’t want to live with four generations in under the same roof. Deal.

Back to the House, however. Where in the Constitution is the House limited to 435 members? Nowhere. Make the House proportional again. Take a state’s population, divide by Wyoming’s, and round to the nearest whole number. If the House won’t fit in the current chamber, hold things somewhere else.

Expanding the House would also fix the Electoral College. It’d also be much easier to make sure minority-majority districts stay that way. (I write that as a mostly-white guy who will probably never know his true racial heritage, and is okay with that....)

Virginia’s two Senators are not facing re-election this year (although the junior one with his $160K in gifts as governor will probably end up being Vice President…), so we’re to the Presidential race.

I did what I promised myself that I would; I looked at the last polls, and I don’t think Virginia is going to be close, so I voted for the Libertarians. Since I started voting, I’ve pretty much stuck with this. In 2008, I kind of abandoned this, thinking Obama would be terrible. Otherwise, I’ve stuck to it. If Virginia was going to be a contest within ten points, I’d hold my nose, and vote for the less-horrible major party candidate.

This year, however, the two parties’ candidates were both unspeakably bad, so I adjusted my threshold. I looked at the last Virginia polls, decided Clinton was probably going to win, and punched the high contrast, large text button for Gary Johnson.

Do I have issues with Governor Johnson? Yes.
Do I have issues with Governor Weld? Yes. Even moreso after his bit with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC recently.

So, why’d I “waste” my vote? I want the LP to have recognition going forward. They went with some particularly bad candidates after Browne, but are trying to build a legitimate organization. Thanks to decades of two-party manipulation of election laws to maintain their duopoly, it’s very difficult for something different to get any foothold.

I don’t believe in forcing you to do anything.
If you want to take drugs, that’s up to you.
If you want to do stupid things, financially, that’s up to you, too.
If you want to live as a professional student, fine.
If you want to rent a house from a bank for your entire life, that’s fine, too.
If you want to have a bunch of kids, fine. Understand that they’re your responsibility until they reach the age of majority, and the state will protect their rights until they reach that age if you’re not doing the job.
If you want to follow a seventeenth century English King’s version of the Bible, that’s fine. I don’t.

All of those things bring consequences, and those consequences will be for you, and those who love you, to deal with. Please don’t expect me, a person who can barely see and walk, to pay for it. No, more than that, don’t get men with guns to make me pay for it.