Bonus points to those people who, like me, saw Laughing Jesus in the original incarnation, Playboy Magazine, back in whatever it was, ’71? Oh the outrage, too. Onto the facepalm. There’s nothing much to laugh about here, unfortunately.
Several places have started publishing their local write-ins, I only have heart enough for two. From Gwinnett county, Georgia:
Hundreds of voters in Gwinnett County chose not to cast their vote for the candidates on the ballot in last week’s presidential election.
A list from the county showed a wide range of candidates voters decided to write-in. The list includes cartoon characters, former presidents, food and celebrities.
[…]
Nearly 100 people wrote in Jesus, while 25 went with God. One person wrote in Holy Spirit. Mickey Mouse got more than 20 write-in votes.Harambe, the gorilla who was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo when a 3-year-old fell into his enclosure, got five write-in votes. Some voters went with their stomachs and cast write-in votes for pizza, a potato and “one whole grain Pop-Tart.”
You can peruse the full list here. There was also a write in for:
GIVE THIS LAND
BACK TO THE
NATIVE INDIGENOUS
TRIBES,
REPARATIONS TO
DESCENDANTS OF
AFRICANS, DESTROY
BABYLON, STOP
MILITARY AND
PRISON INDUSTRIAL
COMPLEX, STOP
RACE/GENDER/SEXU
ALITY/RELIGIOUS
DISCRIMINATION,
END POLICE STATE,
PROTECT THE
ENVIORNMENT
Now some of that is a lovely sentiment, and some admirable goals,* to be sure, but what in the fuckety fuck did this person think this would accomplish? Outside of being on a very modestly viewed blog, not one damn thing. What would have made a difference? A vote for Clinton. The linked .pdf is 138 pages of write ins. One idiot took the time to write in “We Are Doomed”, but just couldn’t bring themselves to do the right thing, like all the other idiots. And yes, if you decided to go with a write-in, you’re an idiot. You’re an idiot because it was screamingly obvious this particular vote was binary. One of two choices. All these people showed up to vote, just so they could demonstrate not voting. Never has the failure mode of clever been more apparent.
NJ.com reports there were 1,695 write-ins in Gloucester County. That’s compared to 384 write-ins in 2012. I have no doubt there’s similar in every single county in every single state. We can thank all these decidedly not clever people for being on the sinking boat on a sea of fascism we now find ourselves in. I think that puts Jesus’s laughter on the hysterical side.
*Absolutely clueless on that Babylon thing.