A Choice To Make

Today, we Ohioans had a choice to make. Actually we had a choice to make before we could vote. We had to choose one of the two major political parties. For people like my wife, who prefers to remain an independent, this is a cruel choice. She had to choose to declare herself as belonging to a party she does not feel aligned with and would never claim in any other situation. What was her only other choice, to stay home, not vote, voluntarily forfeit her franchise?

So, there were no independent candidates. Whose fault is that? When did it become necessary for a candidate to raise a certain amount of money to appear on the ballot? When did this become Constitutional? According to what I learned in school, anyone who meets the Constitutional requirements to serve as president is supposed to be allowed to run for president. The requirements for becoming president are clearly spelled out in the Constitution. There aren't supposed to be any other requirements. The Constitution is supposed to be the supreme law of the land, governing the requirements for all three branches of our government.

Why have we allowed the politicos to corrupt our election process in this way? Can it be that we no longer care how the process works, or is it that we have come to believe the process doesn't work? Did it ever work? I'm doubtful. As much as the founding fathers strove to bring the franchise of the vote to the people, they may have underestimated the apathy of the electorate or the level of mistrust in the process.

Here's an idea! Why don't we all get busy and do our homework and start holding our lawmakers accountable? Why can't we all start paying attention to what our government is doing? Do we really need the media to tell us what to think? Our American media is the epitome of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, endlessly affecting events through the process of "observing" them. How else could a reporter have his foot run over by Britney Spears? Anyone who has ever watched a White House press conference should be able to discern the media's role in affecting our political processes.

Now that we have the internet and numerous ways to find out which lawmakers voted in what directions, who proposed which bills and numerous other metrics pertaining to our Legislative Branch, why don't we simply do our own homework and let the media cover the sensational stuff, which is what they seem to prefer anyway? The reason is simple and it is one I already talked about, apathy! Maybe we forgot that Heisenberg Principle. The way to affect something is to observe it and we the people are the ones who are supposed to be affecting this process. We need to get busy and start affecting it before we have no part in it at all.