Now that I have your attention, and you’ve had a moment to ponder Emily Dickenson, it’s time to ask yourself a question (or four): does it really matter if I vote? Because, really, there are so many other people out there, I’m just one vote, and besides, people get manipulated so easily, by Glenn Beck and Fox News, by Obama and his Mile High Stadium theatrics, by anyone who has a mega phone and a glitzy presentation...
So does it matter if I vote? People are going to do what people are going to do. I'm just one vote.
So does it matter if I vote? People are going to do what people are going to do. I'm just one vote.
Maybe they are manipulated by ignorance and anger, gripping their fears and waiving them like a pitch fork at the boogeyman of the hour, shouting and yelling with delusions of grandeur that they are founders reincarnate, born to bring about a renaissance of American constitutional thought…
But really, why the heck not? What's wrong if that is their motivation? What's wrong if it is stirred up and stoked by demagogues and talking heads?
The last year and a half has been, to me, abso-freakin’-lutely fascinating to watch, and occasionally participate in, as a “Professional American” of course, as we have seen the inauguration of America’s mos
t liberal president in several decades, the successful enactment of a number of his legislative goals, the development of a long overdrawn conflict in a country in which no foreign power has ever successfully prosecuted a war (IN THE HISTORY OF MAN, and that’s to say nothing of the moral justification, just, well, I’m just sayin’), the dismissal of a commander for shooting his mouth off, the rise of an entire grassroots political movement initiated in the ranting of a reporter on the floor of the Chicago mercantile exchange, the end of political careers of politicians who found themselves on the wrong side of that movement, and the argument (well discussed here starting July 23) over the designation of a portion of a building for the worship of a particular faith in a place called New York City…oh, also, Lindsey Lohan went to jail, and Paris Hilton finally got caught with cocaine in her purse, (except it wasn’t her purse, even though it looked identically like her purse and contained her credit card…but I digress…).
And that’s to say nothing of “end” of hostilities in Iraq or the economy or federal deficits that we are leaving for our children.
 Image by oceandesetoiles via Flickr |
It really has been fascinating, if, occasionally, a little frightening. I've watched elections that will determine the future of a state's representation hinge on under a thousand swing votes, enhanced by outside groups that are representative of the recent "Tea Party" movement. Maybe it's good and these new representatives (we call them Senators) will be better. Maybe they won't. But I wonder: how good for America is what is happening? How informed are these Tea Party adherents? Should I consider myself one, too?
Which really speaks to the question at the heart of it: what’s going on? When this blog started, we were in the midst of the silliest of the silly seasons, the longest Presidential campaign in history, a more than two year marathon by some of the most (if not THE most) ambitious men and woman in our country to obtain the highest office in the land (not counting the Supreme Court, which, I think, would actually be a pretty good gig, too), and we debated and discussed, if we were to boil it all down, HOPE. Because, really, that’s what the election, like most elections, are about. Hope. Hope that the next guy will be better than the last guy, or the current guy, or that the current guy will remain our guy, and will fight for our rights, needs, expectations, hopes… Or gal, as the case may be. And that election, the election for President, was especially momentous.
Which really speaks to the question at the heart of it: what’s going on? When this blog started, we were in the midst of the silliest of the silly seasons, the longest Presidential campaign in history, a more than two year marathon by some of the most (if not THE most) ambitious men and woman in our country to obtain the highest office in the land (not counting the Supreme Court, which, I think, would actually be a pretty good gig, too), and we debated and discussed, if we were to boil it all down, HOPE. Because, really, that’s what the election, like most elections, are about. Hope. Hope that the next guy will be better than the last guy, or the current guy, or that the current guy will remain our guy, and will fight for our rights, needs, expectations, hopes… Or gal, as the case may be. And that election, the election for President, was especially momentous.
So what’s going on, now? Why, after all that
Were we manipulated? Is the spin that good? Or is this really the change? Was the swing from Bush to Obama too dramatic for our country to handle for too long? Anger is what got us here, and hope for change...and suddenly, anger is taking us somewhere else, and I dare not hope against hope that it is not worse than where we were...
Or, to quote one of my favorite motivational posters, are the problems created by the solutions as bad as the solutions they purport to solve?
I am not a Tea Party-ist, I think, but I am concerned. I am not an acolyte of the “MoveOn.org” brigade, either (like, uh, duh, Daniel, we knew that, you’re saying). I am an American, and I do tend to lean to the right. However, both sides of the spectrum are going further and further to the wings. On one side we have people angry about unconstitutionality of this, that and the other, about immigration, mosques and the 2nd Amendment; on another side, we have people passing unpopular and unfunded policies as fast as they can lest reelection arrive, first; and under it all we have a large amount of debt, a number so large that my mind cannot comprehend its real value.
Let me say it again: we have a unbelievable amount of federal debt. And that's the part that scares me the most. I'm all about helping people, about fixing our country's problems, about fighting terror and the Taliban, and all that...but not on my children's dime. And when we are in debt, we are limited in our ability to do the things that really do matter.
SO...does it matter if you vote? Heck, yes, it matters. It does, if you show up. It does, if you get educated. It does, if you help select the candidates in your primary. It does, if you encourage rational, smart, normal, and ethical persons to run (heaven forgive us for what we’ve created in Nevada…on both tickets). It does, if you engage.
Because if you don’t , then in your place the passionate, loud, and often inarticulate individuals who are willing to show up will make all the decisions. And guess what: they are manipulated and often, not by good people.
Show up. Show up every day. Make the governing of our country, states, and cities a serious duty in your life. It matters.
And bring a friend.
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