November 4th is Election Day. Pennsylvanians will elect a new governor, or keep the old one. Of course, if we are to believe the attack ads, neither candidate is worthy of said office. Bad, bad, bad, says the one about the other. Nothing is good or right or fair or respectable or just or reasonable or adequate about the opposing candidate.
In our present polarized society, all we hear is extreme talk, extreme one-sided posturing. Candidates make it sound as if it’s a choice between absolute good and absolute evil or guaranteed utopia verses sure destruction: “My opponent offers nothing, absolutely nothing that is good or beneficial; if elected he/she will totally ruin us.”
It’s difficult for a voter to trust any candidate on any side with anything that’s said. And when you can no longer trust what a political ad is saying, when you can no longer believe in the political process, on what basis does one make a reasoned decision as to who is best for the office?
Many eligible voters simply opt-out and refuse to vote altogether. Other voters simply consolidate their personal prejudices and vote their political bias—as in assuming that all Democrats are tax-and-spend people or that all Republicans are obstructionist nay-sayers only interested in protecting the extremely wealthy—without any further consideration.
Perhaps this is exactly what candidates and political parties bet on: Hoping that the majority of eligible voters opt out of the voting process, while the remaining handful of actual voters simply vote with their emotions based on their prejudices rather than with reasoned intelligence and real information.
It is an irony that, while living in the information age, we voters can be so misinformed and/or uninformed about the real facts and underlying truths regarding a candidate’s position or actions. This is partly so because even non-partisan, independent fact-checking websites have been copied and mimicked by biased agenda-driven sites so that a voter can still be misguided.
What is our defense? Our first and primary means of defense is the vote itself. We must not so easily relinquish this right and must exercise its power. We must vote. The more voters that turn out, the more seriously will candidates and parties take all people/voters into account, as opposed to only catering to the chosen-few determined voters that they know they can always depend upon—the extremes.
Speaking of extremes, it is safe to say that extreme political positions of any kind are usually unhelpful and are often dangerous and unhealthy for a community. Thus, a second line of defense for the voter is to vote out extreme positions. This takes us back to our first line of defense—the more voters that turn out the less chance there is for extreme positions to take hold and/or take control.
The bottom line is this: As bad as the political process seems to be—money, money, and more money, and the power that comes with it, being the name of the game—we voters are our worst enemies. Why? We simply fail to get out and vote.
Over the years I’ve heard many friends, relatives, and casual acquaintances all virtually say the same thing about voting, whether young or old: “My vote won’t make a difference anyway.” In short, they’ve excused themselves from the voting process with a wave of indifferent disbelief. And so, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yes! Of course your vote won’t make a difference! For you have already excluded yourself from the action by opting out altogether!
We voters don’t seem to believe in ourselves. We don’t believe in the power of our vote. We think our little voice won’t be heard. So we falsely assume that we have no real “say-so.”
As long as the extreme and only the extreme take advantage of the power of the vote, we will have nothing but extreme results. Let’s bring balance back to our system. Let us ALL get out and vote.
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