November, the season of politicians to begin campaigns for reelection or for higher office. It’s also a time where change can be anticipated, even when there isn’t an election to be had.
Change and diversity are the usual motives behind politics these days but when are these ideas not enough? The federal government is currently at work trying to grant rights to undocumented immigrants, end the war in Iraq, and add new jobs to the economy to nation. Yet the government still cannot provide an answer to declining funds for education, an overall decrease in test scores, rising taxes, and an increase in corporate subsidies that lead to increased corporate corruption.
With the presidential election of 2008 now only one year away, people all across the country need to evaluate which candidates are best fit for the job. Simply voting for the political party that contends with the outgoing administration isn’t enough to justify putting the wrong person in office just because they aren’t the last president. And it isn’t enough for people to think that their vote is insignificant, one needs only to look back to Ohio in the 2004 election to understand how every last vote counts.
The real issue for the upcoming election, as with all elections in this country, is voting for the best change possible for the country. Because people do not merely vote for themselves, they vote for their neighbors as well. In this perspective, democracy instills awesome power in its people, a power that solidifies the United States as a nation that is simultaneously loved and hated by others around the world. With this power Americans all across the globe invoke change in their government that, in other parts of the world, is usually achieved by armed rebellion.
In a few months the primaries will take place in every state to select the candidate that will represent the parties in the general election. One, again, shouldn’t enter into those elections lightly because the primary is the first step to invoking the change in government that Americans are looking forward to.
What’s being asked of people when they vote isn’t easy. One must look past the political schilling of bull and take note of the issues each and every candidate espouses no matter which party a voter associates with. It also isn’t enough for a voter to pick the candidate that champions the issues they have an interest in. A politician’s record is available to the public and one can easily see if that politician is consistent in their voting on issues as they are about how they speak of them. In other words, challenge the assumptions that people have about a candidate to see if that person is the right one for the job of running the country for four years at least.
Finally, back to the local level, one must make sure that their representatives and senators are held accountable to their constituents. When politicians are made to realize that they are going to have to actually listen to their constituents instead of farming votes out of them, then maybe things can change even better when the election rolls around next November. It’s never too late to change things in America, why should the politics be any different?