Let's Broaden the Perspective

One thing that is disturbing me the most about our electoral process over the past several years is the fact that fewer and fewer citizens are truly trying to understand the issues, to consider various options to resolve those issues, and then doing some real research to find out which candidates represent their position on how the issues should be resolved. This is a letter I have submitted to many local papers to try to open up the eyes of the voters before the election. Nothing written in stone here, but I did want to make my opinions heard.


Letter to the editor October 3, 2008

Make Democracy Work

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, considering both old and new approaches to our current political situation, and I think that it is now time for all of us to set aside the partisan mud-slinging campaigning that has occurred this year on both the liberal and the conservative sides. I was recently reading some history about the evolution of the representative democratic form of government that we have in this country. The ideal that has allowed this form of government to successfully survive for over 200 years is the concept of discussion, and, most importantly, two-way communication. Our current dependence on the mass media as our source of information has resulted in a one-way street that has made discussion of the issues by the everyday citizens of the country impossible. We have come to accept that our legislators will take care of everything if we just leave them alone. Well, one thing is certain. They won’t represent us unless we tell them what we want them to do, and how we want them to vote on various issues. These negative ads thrown back and forth right now (by both sides) are, or can be completely misleading. I think the first thing we should do is to make clear our dissatisfaction with this type of campaigning, and demand that candidates focus on what THEY plan to do, and how they plan to pay for it. And until that occurs, we need to do whatever we can to verify what the candidates have done in the past.
I would also point out that we should not limit this communication to election time. We need to make sure that our representatives are kept aware of our interests and our concerns at all times., not just during the elections and not just at the federal level, but the local level as well. Remember that those who fail to make their needs and their concerns known to their elected representatives have no right to complain if those concerns are not addressed by those representatives.
Further, we have the responsibility to educate ourselves more about the issues, themselves, and about how they affect the country. I personally have always held a liberal perspective, but now I have studied more about capitalism and the free market economy, and I can see that there are positive aspects. Free Market = new business = higher employment = competition = lower prices = more income for the working person = more economic growth. But when mega-corporations, outsourcing jobs and greed come into play, the benefits are significantly reduced. Likewise, socialism has its positive points. Simply put, in a pure socialism everyone performs at the kind of work that they do best, and do the best work that they can. The economic benefits are then shared equally by all, and no one has to do without the basic necessities of everyday life. The problem here is that in such a society, a person may choose to look for the easiest job, or choose not to share their abilities fully to the group as a whole, knowing that at least their most basic needs will be met.
Both sides have their positive and negative aspects, and it behooves each of us, no matter what our leanings may be, to consider all sides of the question, and then to make our candidates and our sitting legislators aware of what we want. Let’s open up a two-way conversation between the citizens of this country and their elected representatives. Lets not automatically presume that they are the be-all and end-all of all knowledge about what this country needs. An election – any election – is our opportunity to make our voices heard. Let’s make sure that we keep up our end of the conversation and demand the same from our elected officials.

Barbara Crumb
Branchport NY 14418
315-595-2557

(Please do not publish address or phone number)