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US Iranians Should Vote Locally, Nationally we're moot.
28-Oct-2012
Recently Noor film Festival put out a Public Service Annoucement presumably asking California-Iranians (the largest group in the US) to vote in the upcoming US election. Mostly though the emphasis was the Presidential election.
The argument that this is an important thing to do, sounds nice. But not the way it actually works. Watching the entire ad for Noor Film Festival and the good natured Iranian Acting Comunity, one got the sense that we don't seem to really understand this (or any) Democracy, and certainly we don't apparently know how it works in California. And then, if you are me, you start to wonder about all Iranians in the whole US.
Voting LOCALLY is the ONLY important reason to vote, for US-Iranians.
Nationally, our vote, especially in California is moot. Whether you like Romney or Obama is moot. Obama has already won California because the Electoral voters (who really elect the President) have already indicated they will all be voting for Obama.
Electoral voters are the hard core designated Party Loyalists. In California's case, ALL die-hard loyal members of the Democratic Party. According to the US Constitution The President is never elected by the popular vote of Iranians.
So unless we could sway the Electoral voters, our vote for President does not matter. Whatsoever. Or especially in California. California will always go to the Democrat. To clearly illustrate, if only 3 people total in California voted, and 2 of them voted for Romney and only 1 voted for Obama, California's 55 electoral votes will still go to Obama.
I say this facetiously to make the sarcastic point that I don't think many Iranians actually get. Certainly the Iranian Acting community and the Noor Film Festival don't appear to get this. Maybe they were acting ignorant!
The US Constitution is interesting reading, I suggest comparing the US' to Iran's on Halloween Night. (talk about a Scary Bedtime Story!).
So California is safely going to go to Obama this election. No Fear, No Panic, No need for a public service announcement promoting a film festival and the Iranian Acting community.
This ad would only be useful in Ohio, Virginia, and Florida. But given the relatively few Iranians that actually live there, and fewer who could attend a film festival or support Iranian actors, that would be largely pointless.
The ability to understand how the US election works, makes it important to understand what the real participation in American Politics for Iranians is about. Which is that the action for us as Iranains wherever we live, is at the local level, not the national level.
Of course deciding on a city bond issue to raise funds for parks and clean streams, or the education of our increasingly overweight and spoilt kids is not as much fun as deluding yourself that you are affecting US foreign policy with Iran. And if you focus on this delusion, you can even gloat publicly in self congratulatory posing at the next party, that you actually helped pick the winner. You mattered! You are such a politically savvy player!
You aren't, Ali.
In this election, given the solid polarity of the electoral votes that are already known, Ohio, Florida and Virginia will matter more than the most sincere role played by the best Iranian actor in history. Which is Vossoughi.
So, if you live in any of these 3 states, and are Iranian, and not an actor, and happen to vote the same way that your electoral voters will, you might have a chance to think and exclaim that you singlehandedly affected the US Presidential election. You are indeed the mouse that made sweet love to the elephant.
Everyone else though, can't make the claim.
Which leaves Iranians with the boring un-sexy local election. You know, the one that actually affects your pocketbook, your gated neighborhoods, your future, your kids, and and your every day to day lives.
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Faramarz , we each have one vote. You do as you wish.
by Soosan Khanoom on Sun Oct 28, 2012 03:53 PM PDT...
They are not the same!
by Faramarz on Sun Oct 28, 2012 02:16 PM PDTSoosan Khanoom,
Obama and Romney are not the same.
Obama finished on top of his class at Harvard Law School and instead of going to one of the top firms on Madison Avenue, he became a community organizer on the south side of Chicago, carrying his $100k student loan, in neighborhoods that you and I will never want to visit. Obama and his wife only managed to pay back their student loans after his book became a best seller and brought him the fortune.
Mitt Romney on the other hand is the grandson of a polygamist who escaped to Mexico to continue practicing his beliefs and Mitt's dad moved back to the States after Zapata and Mexican revolutionaries were closing in.
These two people are worlds apart. But if your vision is blurred by Israel/AIPAC and all of that, then they all look the same. The same as saying "all Chinese look the same!"
People like Jill Stein of the Green Party make me vomit. The hatred of the US is written all over their faces. You would think that as a liberal and a feminist she would abhor the IR Regime and what it doing to the Iranian women, but no, they have a bigger fight to fight and that's with the US.
And as for being the only child, you have your own issues. Please listen to Dr. Holakouei's CD's about that topic. And I mean this seriously!
No, I am the only ONE !!
by Soosan Khanoom on Sun Oct 28, 2012 01:02 PM PDTOnce it comes to the U.S foreign policy as well as the idea of saving the Bankstr's ass; both Obama and Romney are the same.
Jill Stein, from Green Party, is much better candidate than these two clowns. Recognizing this simple fact requires some thinking. And, thinking obviously is quite challenging for some on this site.
They are both equally
by vildemose on Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:55 PM PDTThey are both equally important. We can't chew gum and walk at the same time?? What a pointless blog...
All Oppression Creates a State of War--Simone De Beauvoir
Soosan Khanoom
by Faramarz on Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:51 PM PDT?Are you like the last child in a large family
به قول دکتر هلاکویی: عزیز من تو بین اون همه خواهر و برادر له شدی!Faramarz, perhaps just a few, not true for the majority!!!
by Soosan Khanoom on Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:44 PM PDTMost Iranian-Americans oldies are still virgin when it comes to the voting. lol
" Some conservative were outraged Thursday, when the Obama campaign posted a Web ad starring Lena Dunham, creator of the TV show “Girls,” in which she speaks about her “first time” voting, using innuendo to compare it to a girl losing her virginity.
“Your first time shouldn’t be with just anybody. You want to do it with a great guy…someone who really cares about and understands women,” Dunham said in the video, discussing such issues as health insurance, birth control, ending the war in Iraq, equal pay for women, gay marriage, and other big issues.
She then recalled her own “first time” voting four years ago: “It was this line in the sand — before, I was a girl; now I was a woman. I went to the polling station, I pulled back the curtain, I voted for Barack Obama.”
In response to the Obama campaign video, Redstate.com’s Erick Erickson wrote with outrage: “If you need any further proof we live in a fallen world destined for hell fire, consider the number of people who have no problem with the President of the United States, via a campaign ad, ridiculing virgins and comparing sex to voting.”
By the way, I say NO to Obama and NO to Romney ... I am going to vote for the Green Party Candidate! and I am looking forward to 2016 and certainly hope the former Minnesota Governor, Jesse Ventura, runs ... he will have my vote then.Vote Early and Often!
by Faramarz on Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:17 PM PDTThere are many Iranians who arrived here on Plymouth Rock on board the Mayflower and have been voting regularly since then.
Please set aside your negativism and get involved. There are long lines of people in front of US embassies around the world who are trying to be just like us.
I tend to disagree w/ the notion of voting only locally!
by MM on Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:51 AM PDTIn 2000, 500 votes in Florida, made the difference between Bush and Gore as the president. If the Clinton administration had not interfered in the Ilian Gonzalez case in the year before, I am sure we would have had President Gore in the office! As a registered voter who makes sure to vote, locally and nationally, I am contacted by a host of politicians who need my vote and money, and they always answer me in full paragraphs / pages, when I ask a question.
Nonetheless, I think the key for the Iranian-Amsricans is to vote as a block, just like the Jews and the Cuban-Americans do. But, unfortunately, we cannot agree on nothing since we all have Ph.D.s in political science and are pretty good at pissing / spitting contests.
Well they can still vote on the " dancing with stars" !! LOL
by Soosan Khanoom on Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:20 AM PDTOn the more serious note, I should say that within last 30 something years we have been dealing with the generation of Iranians whom have never considered this land as their own to even bother with the politics. They are still waiting for a miracle, a bomb, captain America, or something to get them back to Iran, pretty much like the cubans in Florida. These people are not even in the mood to vote for anything local either...Unfortunately, most are suffering from mental syndromes when it comes to the politics and they are pretty much screwed up; so, just cross them out. I say we should have our hope invested in the second generation Iranians. Now, Guess which Iranian-American organization so far has been able to give young professional Iranian- Americans a political voice and platform?
;)
Ps.. thanks for the blog ..