We the People

Yesterday I was talking with a few members of my family, and we were lamenting the fact that we don't have one viable candidate we can feel even moderately excited about supporting for president. What's more, none of us wants to be affiliated with our political parties any more because we are all so disgusted with them. Not a good way to go into an election year, is it?

It seems our political system has devolved into a mad scramble of egocentric, unprincipled individuals to first, seize power by making promises to their constituents and second, hold on to that power by abandoning those promises in favor of the party line. Sadly, the honest and committed need not apply...nor would they wish to, because they are unwilling to dive into the smarmy, backbiting cesspool that has become Washington DC.

I can't even stand to listen to most of the news programs at this point. Where are the steady, truth-finding reporters and commentators of old...examining both sides carefully in an attempt to uncover truth, wherever it may lie? Good luck finding one on any television station today. Hosts and guests alike don't care where truth lies anymore, because their truth does lie, blatantly and without apology, in support of whatever self-serving cause they are using to exact personal gain in that moment.

Have you ever taken a close look at a politican's eyes during an interview or debate? Their shifty orbs dart from side to side like sneaky little foxes, trying to find a way through the hen house without getting any feathers on them. Those all-too-oft repeated talking points and "at the end of the day's" are enough to drive a concerned citizen looking for real information crazy, and I am just fed up to here with the whole freak show.

The question is and continues to be this: What do we do about it? How can we vote our conscience when our conscience tells us none of these candidates is worthy of being called President of the United States of America?...or anything else, for that matter?

I only wish I knew, but I do know one thing. We need to speak and write and discuss our displeasure in the public forum, and I hope you will join me. Talk to friends and associates, both at work and in the community. Blog about politics now and then, however distasteful. Contact your senators and congressmen/women so you can let them know how you feel about two-faced behavior, personal glory-seeking, and double dealing. These people need to realize their careers will not survive if they are serving themselves instead of our country and its citizens, and we are the ones that have to make that true, by and through our own votes. The same goes for presidential candidates, who can be contacted via their various personal websites.

I've heard many say that they will refuse to vote at all if they cannot do so in good conscience. While I completely understand their reticence to support a candidate they neither respect nor trust, I suggest that if we fail to keep exercising our right to vote, we are lost. With that in mind, I will continue my ongoing commitment to discerning which individual is the lesser of two (or more) evils and marking my ballot in his or her favor.

However, in the not entirely unimaginable event that there is no one I can possibly vote for and still look at myself in the mirror the next day, I intend to utilize the write-in option and place on the ballot, as both a protest and a suggestion that our political system needs an overhaul, the name of someone I think might conduct himself honorably. (I realize this would not be a valid vote unless that person were to pre-register as a write-in candidate, but it would still be a valid vote for my purposes.) Think about it; if enough people did this, a loud statement would surely be made. If nothing else, political hopefuls might be forced to court independents by making greater efforts to work together for the good of our nation and to exercise a measure of integrity in their dealings.

I have to believe that we, the people have more power in this union than we are making good use of at this point. I am going to do more this year to make my voice heard, and I hope many other Americans will do the same.