One
Citizen
“Let
us never forget that government is not an alien power over us. The
ultimate rulers of our democracy are not the President and senators
and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this
country.”
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt
I
would be remiss if I did not write about American democracy today,
after the mid-term elections yesterday. If my polling place was any
indication, people came out in unexpectedly high numbers, which is
usually a sign of either excitement or disgust—in most cases, the
latter.
As
a citizen, I am weary of the nastiness of politics today. I've heard
that it started in earnest when Gary Hart was caught in salacious
circumstances in 1987, and has ramped up every election cycle since.
I'm here to say, it needs to stop. For one thing, the American people
have no pride in a democracy that has sunk to the lowest common
denominator. Who in their right mind would want to run for office
knowing that they will be eviscerated on television and in print for
months or even years, whether or not the information spewed forth
contains one iota of truth. What we end up with is representatives who are
obviously not in their right mind.
It
is we the people who are to blame for the wrongs in our government.
Those elected are a reflection of us. We put them there, we gave them
power to govern, and we are living with the results of our own
decisions. When we become thoughtful and open-minded people, we will
elect thoughtful and open-minded representatives. As long as we are
reactive, angry, and dare I say, ignorant of the facts, we will elect
people who are angry, reactive and short sighted. We are them—they
are us.
God
is not going to save us from this, no matter how much, or in what way, we invoke God's help. Any God worth praying to is as disgusted as we
are. This is our mess. Let's clean it up.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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