I’m getting offended by constant posts on Facebook, emails and texts reminding me I still have time to vote.
I voted days ago. Just like I’ve done in every election since turning 18 so long ago that classic rock was yet to be called classic.
Democrats are urging people to do their duty and vote out President Trump as Republicans are doing the same hoping to give the president another four years.
I don’t think that’s likely … but polls were wrong four years ago. I know a lot of people in the middle who voted for the president because he wasn’t a politician.
Four years later, I think, many moderates will return to voting for a politician partly because they’re embarrassed by the president’s tone and how he’s handled the coronavirus. Donald Trump may not have been physically killed by the virus, but I think it’s going to kill his presidency. The fact that Texas is supposedly in play should scare Republicans. It’ll be interesting to see what percentage of the vote President Trump gets in Lubbock County. If it’s well below the two-thirds he got in 2016, that’ll be telling.
We’ll know soon enough … or maybe by 2039. Hopefully all this ballot-counting concern will be the non-mess that Y2K was two decades back.
Regardless of who wins and who whines … the country will go on as it has for close to 250 years now.
Regardless of who wins and who whines … the country will go on as it has for close to 250 years now.
Meanwhile, if Biden wins Democrats will tell us “This is what America wants” … as both parties say when they win. They act like they received 100 percent of the vote, as if they were handed a mandate equal to Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.
So what’s my point? Maybe someone could claim a mandate if everyone voted. In the last three presidential elections, a little more than 50 percent voted. And that drops way down in local elections … embarrassingly low.
In a country built on freedom, we cannot order people to vote. But I’d love to see a way to motivate voting. You don’t vote … you pay anywhere from $100 to $10,000 more in taxes based on your tax bracket.
What a great way to fund all these programs the Democrats want to move us closer to socialism.
Health care for all? Free college? Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the masses?
We can now fund it.
I’m more offended by people who proudly tell me they don’t vote because they feel it doesn’t matter than anything a politician says. Well, almost anything.
I’m more offended by people who proudly tell me they don’t vote because they feel it doesn’t matter than anything a politician says. Well, almost anything.
This is still a government of the people … no matter how many people think different.
While we’re at it … let’s fix some other election issues.
- Please, please, please can we make judge races non-partisan as done in many other states? Judges are supposed to rule by the law in front of them. The judiciary is too politicized. Conservative friends of mine are disgusted with some recent decisions of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Is he becoming liberal or did he just interpret the law the way he saw fit in a few cases? Partisan judicial races only make it worse.
- Use your noggin. When I was editor of the Avalanche-Journal, I got a call one day from a reader who wanted to know when we were going to publish our comprehensive list of endorsements. She told me she took that to the polls and used it as her guide. As nice as it was to hear someone tell me they trusted our decision making that much, it also bothered me she wasn’t thinking independently. Of course, I also heard from people who took our suggestions and made sure they voted 180 degrees the other way, which always made me laugh. When we did endorsements, it meant interviewing sometimes as many as four-dozen candidates. It took a lot of time and we did more research on top of that before we endorsed candidates who we felt would come closest to supporting positions we took in our editorials. A few examples, for federal races, were a strong hand on the war on terror, less government and freedom of the individual. By the time I went to vote, I felt I’d done thorough research. And sometimes, although rarely, my personal vote didn’t always match what our editorial board decided. I realize most Americans don’t have time or access to interview every candidate. But they can do research. I took my sample ballot which is easy to find and spent a couple of hours looking up stuff on the Internet. Not crap … but things like question and answer posts candidates answered.
I’ll keep doing that because it’s my job as an American and I’m stunned how many people think this is optional.