Watching this year’s political campaign, it’s easy to become frustrated and cynical by the inane TV commercials featuring all manner of red herrings, half-truths and the typical mud-slinging. As one person said in my hearing recently, “it’s like we’re flooded with words that have no meaning.”
Having reached the point where, if we haven’t voted yet, we need to start thinking seriously about getting it done, the question may arise: Why bother?
I heard someone ask that question recently – an intelligent individual who has thought deeply about the issues in this election and who has a very mature set of political beliefs.
If you think the two leading presidential candidates are chameleons who have produced little convincing evidence that they’re the men for the job, if you’re disheartened by the foolish decisions made in Salem by the citified majority in our legislature (and their constituents, who vote on initiatives that affect us rural residents), it’s a legitimate question. Why bother at all?
Here’s a related question that might be worth considering. Why do some politicians run for office when they know they can’t win? Are they just crazy? Really stupid?
Well, I’ve interviewed plenty of these people over the years and I don’t think they’re crazy – at least not most of them. Many have no chance and they know it. They aren’t people-pleasers and they often have one or two issues – principles – that they really care about.
But that’s why they run: Because it’s a chance to sensitize the public to those issues or principles, to get more attention than they might normally for the cause that’s dear to their heart. It’s the right thing to do.
We come into this election experiencing a world that is vastly different from the one we lived in even 10 years ago. Our national debt has skyrocketed out of sight. We are pulling troops out of one war zone and hoping we don’t have to commit to any more conflict. We have, in the minds of many in America, lost standing in the world and embarrassed our allies. Our health system is a mess. Distrust of government and of corporate America is rampant. Our retirement systems – Medicare and Social Security – are looking more and more like houses of cards .
It’s easy to be cynical and wonder how our little vote can change anything, especially since legislators who actually operate according to principle (at least the one you or I might hold dear) seem increasingly few.
Maybe your vote won’t change the world, but voting is good for us and it’s our duty.
In this day of diminished principles, we don’t think much about duty. But as citizens of a democratic republic, we really do have an obligation to participate in our government. We’re foolish not to.
If nothing else, by voting, each of us is committing ourselves to support a person or measure that best represents our ideals, our world view. Likely, that fit won’t be perfect, but we’re making a statement about what we believe is right and that’s important – that’s what democracy is all about. And unless we want despots telling us how to live our lives, it’s our best option.
Yeah, the mere mention of “principles” and “duty” sound kind of stiff and old-fashioned, but much as many post-moderns, millennials, Generation Whatevers, might chafe at the thought, principles are still what govern the processes of our world. The principle that if you spend more than you make, for instance, will eventually come home to rest for all of us, whatever we want to think.
If we don’t dictate them, they’ll dictate to us.
That’s why we need to vote. We need to say our piece, mark the box on the ballot choices that best reflect our view – imperfect though they may be