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Enough of the idiots, thieves and slackers
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If you are reading this, there's a good chance that you are going to vote in the primary election next Tuesday, if you haven't already cast your ballot during early voting. Statistics show that, although voter turnout is not sequestered to the literate, the constant acquisition of current information and knowledge is a prime indicator of involvement in civic affairs.
It's not just a theory put forth by folks who buy their ink by the barrel; newspaper readers are better informed and undeniably influential on social, political and economic levels. So I don't need to tell you to sit up and pay attention. But, if your life is anything like mine, you might want to inform your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and anybody else with that glazed-over look in their eyes, that the election coming up next Tuesday is their last chance to pick their horse for the big race in November. So, choose wisely.
But primaries have always seemed like odd little beasts to me. There just seems to be something inequitable about voting against yourself. Dems taking on other Dems. Republicans slogging it out against their own party members. I know the logic and the law behind it, it just seems incongru-ent. But, as a means of narrowing down the field of viable candidates I suppose it's just as good a method as any other.
I should find it heartening, I suppose, to encounter a cadre of candidates vying for any particular office but it just makes me cringe. I wish we could spread them out - regardless of party affiliation - so that all of the qualified, dedicated candidates could fill offices currently held by idiots, thieves and slackers. Seems like there are plenty of good candidates, they jUst all run against themselves and cancel each other out.
And, then we are typically left with a pair of mean-spirited, traditionally unhealthily wealthy, egocentric party victors beady-eyed on their opponent's jugular. And, it becomes a spectator sport that I cannot, in all good faith, explain to my children with any rationality. When honest candidates go home empty-handed and politicians with an agenda of personal gain slide into place regardless of their qualification or dedication to the common good, it takes a toll on us all.
Sometimes I feel like just "Darwin-ing" it. Letting the literate survival-of-the-fittest prevail and then, just walking on, letting the chips fall where they may. And surely I feel like this when some ignorant ass, armed with a fleck of misinformation attempts to deride the process of our democracy by spreading fallacy and sensationalism against the common good. And when I'm just about to throw my hands up in despair, I will stumble upon someone smart and sincere and politically curious who hasn't, for whatever reason, figured out the process yet. They want to be involved and their minds and hearts are open to the possibility and promise of something better than what we have now. And, honestly, regardless of who is in office, there should always be the promise of something better, right? And we should all be seeking it.
Copyright 2010 The Free Press, Buda, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.
© 2010 The Free Press Buda, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.
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