Election Day is Nov. 2, just under a month away.
This is shaping up to be an atypical election year here in Linn County. One hint of that is the answer to this question: When was the last time you saw this many lawn signs (and magnetic car signs) out there a month before D-Day?
Citizens seem more stirred up this year than usual and the reasons are not hard to figure. An economy in the tank. Inflation.
Widespread unemployment. Government takeover of private industry. Massive public debt. The threat of tax hikes. Health care.
Those are just the more recent ones. We were already facing a myriad of other concerns, including (in no particular order of importance) terrorism and the wars in the Middle East, illegal immigration, international trade imbalances, poverty and public assistance, gay rights, states’ rights, decreasing individual freedom, etc., etc.
We suggest that this is a year we all especially need to do our job as citizens: vote. If you’re not happy with how things are going, don’t just assume that nothing’s going to change. Whether you agree with them or not, the Tea Party folks have demonstrated that not everybody’s asleep and that if the public gets aroused, citizens can still make something happen.
And that’s the point here: If you’re not happy with the way things are, you can do something to change it. That could mean throwing your support in the voting booth behind an incumbent who you think is doing a good job or it could mean marking your ballot for a challenger.
But what it requires is for you to do your homework. Let’s face it: the commercials on both sides are mostly a joke. They’re slanted, they often exaggerate to the point of near falsehood, and they play on heavily on emotions. Problem is, too many voters don’t go much farther than that €“ and maybe the voter’s guide, in which candidate statements are little more help than the commercials.
There is hope. Read newspapers. Seaerch the Web. Of course, what you find there may be biased too, but at least you have the chance to sift through the arguments on both sides €“ and these are ways to find less-biased, more-factual information that you won’t hear in a commercial or in what has passed for a debate or forum so far this election season.
The New Era will seek to help with some pre-election coverage in the next few weeks, before ballots are due. We will focus particularly on our local City Council election and what we see as the other very competitive race, for the Fourth District congressional seat. We will offer you our take on what the issues are or should be and then we’ll leave it to you to decide what to do about it.
Reporters and Web sites may not tell you everything you need to know and may even give you a bum steer on some things. But there’s a lot of truth out there if you can factor in the source and likely bias (particularly on Web sites) and find consistent themes and information in news reports.
You’ve got a month to do some research. Do your part to make things better this year.