Understanding How Your Vote Counts
Too many people suffer from election apathy. Some people truly don’t care about politics others don’t understand how their voting habits actually impact the nation. Every vote counts, from the local offices to national elections, the way you vote has the potential to impact the outcome. The important point is to understand that until you establish your voting parameters and actually cast those votes, it is only a potential.
There is a conundrum among voting habits, however. This conundrum often negates a person’s vote. As a single example, look at Missouri in the 2000 elections. Missouri voted for President Bush, a Republican, yet in the gubernatorial contest, voted for Bob Holden, a Democrat. The effect of this can be seen in state political positions versus federal political positions. In Missouri, an estimated 62% of the people are in favor of banning gay marriage. However, the democratic state legislature and democratic governor oppose banning gay marriage. In the federal race, Missourians clearly spoke up about their values by which they elected to run the nation, yet at the state level a different party was elected and the result has been an inability to pass a measure banning gay marriage at the state level even though the President supports banning gay marriage.
Most people have no problem stating that the condition of our nation is in shambles, from a moral standpoint. An overwhelming majority of people in the country claim an affiliation with a Christian denomination. By proxy, one can infer that those people who believe in Christianity also believe in the morals taught by Christianity. Used as a measuring stick, it is easy to see that the morals of the country as a whole do not jibe with the morals attributed to the majority of the populace. People bemoan the state of affairs, yet do little to change the tide, and often they inadvertently feed into the trends that affect our country and the policies we live under.
Consider this scenario. At the state level, a suit is filed by an individual. In the state courts, the suit is upheld by liberal judges, appointed by a liberal governor. The plaintiff appeals to the federal level where the decision is overturned by a conservative panel of judges, appointed by a conservative President. The state loses money on all accounts because of the lengthy and costly process. However, if a state voted consistently among the elections, placing a conservative governor in the statehouse and a conservative president in the White House, many of these issues would become moot. Not only is there inconsistency between state and federal governments, but there is inconsistency in state government. It is commonplace to elect one party as governor, while electing the other party into a majority of the legislature. This results in party politics torpedoing legislation and killing bills that are important to the citizens.
At the federal level you have the issue of appointed judges who interpret the laws. Many of these laws are ambiguous at best, and interpretation of them winds up being solely dependant upon these appointed judges. If you don’t like the direction the country is going, one of the primary areas to look at is the federal bench. We don’t get to vote on these appointments, we are left at the mercy of the people we elect to the Presidency and our federal legislators. The Supreme Court justices do not retire often. These are lifetime appointments. Often the jurists on the bench time their retirements to coincide with their party’s control of the White House, in an attempt to ensure that a philosophically like-minded jurist will be appointed to fill their vacancy. This is a deliberate hijacking of the Supreme Court by the very people who are charged with interpreting our laws. The entire timbre of our country could be changed in as little as 12 years, through consistent voting habits.
Those who are fed up with the direction our nation has been going have the power to change that direction through time and perseverance; through voting consistently in all elections for those officials who promote a positive change. In the span of 12 years, if the federal legislature and the White House were staffed by elected officials who were dedicated to improving the values of our nation, we would see laws enacted to remove the vulgarity from entertainment, laws to protect traditional marriage, laws to protect the unborn and laws that will lower health care costs. At the same time, we would also see several Supreme Court justices reach an age where retirement was imminent, setting the stage for judges to be appointed who truly reflect the values of the majority of our nation, rather than activist judges using the bench to promote their own social agendas.
At the time of this writing, our country is run by those who hold minority opinions. For whatever reason, the majority opinions get shoved to a back burner or hidden from public view. After all, it isn’t politically correct to defend you beliefs unless you are in a special group that constitutes a minority. The majority of people in this country do not support gay marriage, do support malpractice lawsuit capping, do not support abortion and do not support the current misinterpretation of separation of church and state. Yet we are forced to live with the minority held opinions because we do not harness our collective voting ability and exercise the right to vote in line with our conscience.
Ironically, there was a recent uproar in the Kansas City Missouri area when local pastors and priests dared to suggest their churches should be more involved in the political process. From out of the woodwork crawled many democrats who decried this idea, and immediately instituted a policy of sending ‘undercover agents’ to local churches to make sure pastors were not “campaigning” for any candidates. Not surprising, the Republicans had no such outcry. This is a clear example of the moral division between the two parties. The Democratic Party does not want the Christian Voting Block to unite and they will do whatever they can to prevent unity from developing among Christians. One talk show host even made the comment that it was wrong for any person to consider their own values when voting.
The time has come for people who believe the moral direction of the United States of America needs to change to unite in their voting power; to consistently elect officials who will work to promote the values of the majority of our nation. We need to elect officials who will not hide behind the façade of being politically correct, catering to minority groups over issues that affect us all. The time has come when we should no longer allow ourselves to be cowed by the minority and forced to live with laws that violate what we believe in. The time has come for us to stand together and draw the line in the sand over the erosion of morals. The time has come for us to demand accountability from our elected leaders; to expect and receive an explanation from those who vote on our laws as to why they vote for laws that do not reflect our wishes and vote against laws that do.
Unity is the key to winning this battle. We must learn to set aside our individual differences and work to the common good. In 1992, Bill Clinton won the presidency, even though the majority of Americans did not vote for him. How did this happen? Lack of unity among the voters. Ross Perot split the Republican Party vote. Combined, more people voted for George Bush, Sr. and Ross Perot than voted for Bill Clinton, yet Clinton ended up in the White House. More people voted for a candidate other than Bill Clinton, than those who voted for him. Those who are committed to improving the values of our country can no longer afford to allow wild cards to influence their voting habits. A look at the Clinton administration is all that is needed in order to understand why. We cannot afford to allow our individual agendas to detract us from voting for the main candidate who promotes our values. The disastrous result of such distraction is that we inadvertently allow yet another morally devoid person take over our nation. Because of this, every vote does indeed count. You may feel your single vote for an independent candidate can’t really cause any damage, but in fact it can – and it does.
Make your vote truly count this year; cast a vote for morals, for values, for returning our country to the people.
The voting booth is our soapbox, the ballot is our microphone. It is time to stand together and send a mighty cry unto the nation that we will not allow the minority of people lacking solid values to continue dictating public policy for the rest of us.