If the latest election has taught us anything, is that our vote, which I’m a big, big fan of, is rapidly becoming less and less meaningful, becoming instead as set piece in the drama that is representative government.
Seriously, there’s no new ideas here, and none being offered. Campaigns are not about being fair and impartial; they’re about the politics of personal destruction. Candidates scour the globe through social media and the like simply to paint the opposition in the worst possible light instead of debating issues and coming up with fresh approaches.
It’s even infecting races at the state level; how could it not, when the lingo surrounding campaigns includes words like fight, battle, war, etc.
A pundit I’ve recently discovered online pointed out that elections, which show the will of the easily swayed, have of late become exercises in self-protection for lawmakers and constituents alike, one wanting to keep in office and the other wanting to keep the gravy train rolling.
(To further illustrate the above, this pundit couches her ideas in very angry and very expletive-laden language.)
That pattern is echoed in the supposedly hallowed halls of Congress, which recently voted overwhelmingly to block the release of congressional sexual misconduct (ostensibly in the Epstein files) by a very large margin.
In a nutshell, the grift is alive and well.
Usually after elections I congratulate everyone who voted on getting out there and letting your voice be heard. This is the one true way that we the people have to keep our elected officials in line, since they have essentially stacked the deck in their favor.
This election was eye-opening in that there seemingly is no limit to the shenanigans being pulled during election time, so I’m thinking that the next step in this is to begin pestering and peppering elected officials on any and everything that relates to their job.
See, things have flipped in our country, to my mind. There is no more innocent until proven guilty, and most of the elected officials at every level have forgotten that we elected them to run a city, or county, or state, or country, not to run every aspect of our lives, and certainly not to do it without hearing from us.
So since you’ve already shown you are willing to have your voice heard at the polls, I thinks it’s prudent to now let them hear you on the phone, or in emails or even snail mail (just not megaphones. You’ll get blamed for things like J6 or something equally heinous and ridiculous). Because the more our representatives are left to their own devices, the more we get oppressed through legislation and regulation.
That also includes the president, by the way, since there are contact numbers available for the White House, and you can express your indignation or appreciation for the work the president is doing and your thoughts on things like bombing Iran or firing Kristi Noem (or creating something called the Shield of the Americas).
Aside from combative language, another word bandied about in campaigns is the word change. So, let’s give them a change, and start holding our representatives’ feet to the fire. We’ll get another chance in May, and another in November.
Tony Farkas is editor of the Trinity County News-Standard and the San Jacinto News-Times. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing.com.
