28 Oct Humans (well, Americans). Please Vote!

Pick an issue. Coronavirus. Healthcare. Law and order and unlawful rioting. Cannabis and hemp. Immigration. The economy and the stock (and bond!) market. Abortion. Race relations, white supremacy, black lives matter and equality. Court appointments. Our relationships abroad, both friend and foe, on both security and trade. Presidential character. Climate change and the oil and gas markets. Election integrity. Election meddling. Or pick a bunch or all of them, or some I may not have mentioned (charter schools? cost of college? small business? war on terror?). Decide how you feel about them and how important they are to you. Then ask who you think are our best representatives on those issues going forward, and who has shown through their experience how they would and have acted on them. If you’re not sure of the answers, do a little research. Seriously you just have to open your iPad, and too many of my smart friends are not sufficiently informed. And try, as best as you can, to seek news from multiple points of view to add perspective.

Accept that pretty much every candidate has some flaws, some concerns, some issues. Accept that our voting system, governed by the klunky and imperfectly designed Electoral College, is fundamentally flawed on multiple levels. Frankly the College (inartfully named though derived from the Latin name for “society”) probably could use a reboot 231 years after a bunch of aristocrats worried about too much “true” democracy and wanted “enlightened statesmen” ultimately to decide on the election results at a time when access to news and political views was limited. And some believe the College was really created to protect southern states and slavery, since Southerners in lower population states could count (at least part of) their slaves in deciding how many Electoral College votes they received even though slaves didn’t vote. But vote we must. In person, if you feel you can safely, given how many mail in ballots are routinely rejected.

Many of us are not in lockstep with either party, with some views that fit well in one party and others that fit well in the other.  My blogees know that I never express any opinion on political issues (ok, well maybe cannabis) or candidates. But there is one thing we know for sure. We do get to decide who runs this place, but only if we exercise that right. It sounds cliche, especially for those of us in states where the outcome is not really in doubt (hello my fellow New Yorkers). Do it anyway. Send a message. Make sure our leaders know what matters to their bosses, the American people.

Our ancestors and compatriots shed too much blood to first earn, then to protect these basic rights. Do NOT take the right to select our leaders for granted. Every vote counts. Remember 2000, when the national election was decided by less than 1,784 votes in Florida. So yes. Please. Vote. The end.