Voter Motivation

I have heard talk from politicians and pundits for many years now about how the electorate needs to be motivated to get out and vote in the presidential and midterm elections.  I’ll bet that many of you have heard those comments too.  They say things like; voters did not go to the polls because there were no major candidates or issues on the ballot, many voters feel like ‘my vote won’t matter anyway’ and so do not bother to vote, voters are completely frustrated with what is happening – or not happening – in Washington so they protested by just staying at home, the Democrats/Republicans did not do the things they needed to do to motivate their base to get out and vote, and the list goes on.

Are they serious?  Whether or not you are a sports fan I’ll bet that at some time in your life you have heard someone say things about their favorite professional sports teams like; those guys are paid a lot of money – the coach shouldn’t have to motivate them to play hard and give it their all during games, in order to overcome your ___________ (you fill in the blank) problem you have to want to overcome it; without that, all of the encouragement and prodding from support groups will be meaningless.

And how many of us as parents have at some point said things to our children like; if you want to be the best at something, you have to be willing to work to achieve it?  Or, even made less lofty statements like; if you want to be a ___________ (again, you fill in the blank) you have to believe in yourself and continue to work toward that goal no matter what others might say to try to discourage you.

All of these things are about motivation with the key being self-motivation.  My point is that you hold the key and not someone else.  Others can help to motivate us by encouraging us, they can try to dilute our personal motivation by discouraging us, or at worst – we can lack the quality of self-motivation and fail to even try to achieve anything unless we are pushed to do so by some outside force.

Whether we are Democrats, Republicans or Independents, the right to vote was not just handed to some of us.  Instead, it was achieved through hard-fought battles by our predecessors some of whom even died during this struggle.  To treat the right to vote as if it is something shallow and meaningless by failing to regularly vote unless we are constantly prodded to do so by politicians and pundits during election cycles is shameful.

A Storm Is Coming; President Obama and congress in faceoff

Ever since the completion of the midterm elections President Obama has publicly stated time-and-again that he is going to use his executive power to do as much as he possibly can to begin to fix America’s broken immigration system.  This created a conundrum among Republicans in Washington and they immediately began to scurry around seeking a solution that would prevent him from moving forward with what they perceived as an overt threat to yet again abuse his presidential power.

Among the solutions that they are considering are another government shutdown and even impeachment.  Everything is on the table they say.  To support what they view as the lawlessness of President Obama and the severity of the situation, some of them evoked statements that Jonathan Gruber, who was a consultant to the Obama administration on Obamacare in 2009-2010, made calling the law intentionally vague so that it could take advantage of the ‘stupidity’ of the voters.  President Obama denies that Americans were duped into passing the healthcare law.

According to an article in U.S. News & World Report by Kenneth T. Walsh, ‘congressional Republicans expressed outrage at the deceptions described by [Gruber]’ and that Obamacare was falsely presented to the public to insure its passage.  I believe that this is just another expression of the vitriol that Republicans have for this president and another opportunity that they just cannot pass up to damage or destroy his legacy by branding him and dismantling Obamacare.

Congress has had ample opportunity to debate and work to fix our immigration system and still have not done anything.  The bipartisan bill passed by the senate has languished in the house for almost 18 months and continues to do so without being voted on.  Although during all this time they have done nothing to address this problem, they fume and threaten impeachment when President Obama even talks about using his executive power to make an effort to fix it.  Why is that?

The outrage that Republicans express at the president’s announcement that he will use his executive power immediately in an effort to begin to fix the immigration system rather than waiting until Republicans are in full control of the congress is just as disingenuous as the outrage they expressed during the early stages of Obamacare.

I wrote about this disingenuousness in an article titled ‘The Republicans’ Affordable Care Act Charade’ that was published in the Daily Camera.com about a year ago.  I reprinted it here and it immediately follows this article in the event that you would like to read it.

The Republicans’ Affordable Care Act Charade

Reprinted on 11/18/2014 for your convenience

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was controversial and created political battles between Republicans and Democrats when it was a bill and continues to do so since it has become law.  Republicans fought relentlessly to prevent the ACA from becoming law and since it has become law, voted at least 40 times to repeal it.

In the meantime, in conjunction with continuously working to repeal the ACA, they have made efforts to sabotage it in any way possible in the hope that they will gain additional support from stakeholders – both inside and outside of congress, who will join them in their efforts to repeal it.  Their latest effort to sabotage the ACA via Republican Fred Upton’s bill has garnered some success and has the GOP all but visibly salivating at the prospect that this victory will be the edge that they need to finally derail the ACA.  Some GOP lawmakers were even giddy about this victory while spouting that even 39 Democrats voted for the Upton bill.

I was deeply saddened to see that 39 Democrats voted for this bill but I was especially surprised to see that Representative Tammy Duckworth was among those 39 Democrats listed.  I was surprised because I have been aware of her position on various issues and this vote did not fit that profile.

It is important for anyone who is of voting age – whether they are Democrat, Republican, or Independent – to remember that there are things in the ACA that are beneficial to them.  Some of these things are already in effect.  For instance, insurance companies can no longer deny insurance to anyone due to a preexisting condition.  And, children can remain on their parents’ insurance policy until they are 26 years old.  If the ACA is not successful, these things along with other requirements in the ACA that make insurance companies more accountable will be lost.

Under the circumstances, those who want to keep these benefits and are represented by elected officials who are working to repeal this law should let them know that they do not want it repealed.  It is also important for young voters, especially college students attending colleges and universities outside of their home state, to know that some of the same lawmakers who are working to repeal the ACA are also working to make it harder for them to vote.

The world knows that the Republicans outrage at the ACA rollout debacle and deep concern that some Americans lost their insurance coverage and now cannot access the ACA website to get insurance is disingenuous.  That means that the 39 Democrats who abandoned President Obama and voted for the Upton bill are aware of this too.

I can understand that some Democrats might feel pressure to take the safe political road because they are up for reelection in 2014.  What I can’t understand is why after weighing what is at stake for all of the American people versus accumulating points toward their reelection they would choose the latter; especially when the 2014 election is so far away.  In every walk of life that I am aware of, leaders are expected to be strong and do the right thing.  So even if the election were tomorrow I expect our leaders to do the right thing.  They should circle the wagons around President Obama and do the right thing: thank you President Obama for doing the right thing.  Stay strong!

I am a proud Democrat and I believe that the leaders that we choose must have more faith in those who put them in office.  Although too many of us do not follow politics and too often fail to see the big picture, those leaders that we select to represent us must have confidence in their own ability to ultimately explain to us why they made the decisions that they made.  Many decisions have been made by our leaders at one time or another that some of us agreed with while others didn’t.  But that is the nature of things; common ground is the common denominator of life.

In school I was taught that there are large and small common denominators and there are the largest and the smallest common denominators.  I was also taught that when you reach the smallest common denominator, that is as far as you can go.

My admonition to those 39 Democrats who voted for Representative Upton’s bill is for them to reflect on their vote and in conjunction with their responsibilities as our elected leaders, truly determine if they had reached their smallest common denominator.  If they had reached it, then they had a charge to vote like they did.  If they had not reached it, then they should put that vote behind them and make sure that as they move forward they always assure in advance of their decisions at what point they are on the common denominator spectrum.

Eulus Dennis

The Barber Shop

I was in the neighborhood barbershop the other day waiting to get my hair cut.  While I was browsing through a magazine waiting for my turn in the chair, I heard a familiar voice on MSNBC talking about the posturing that was continuing between President Obama and the congress.

I was sitting in the young section of the shop.  I call it that because that is the section where it seems that all of the young people – and me – get our hair cut.  This young barber has been cutting my hair for a long time now and I must think highly of him because he always leaves this bald spot in the top of my head near the back but I keep going back to him anyway.  He says that it’s a function of my age but I’m not so sure about that; I think maybe it’s a slip of the clippers.  Anyway…

The TV in the young section was not on the same channel as the one in the other section so I moved to that section so that I could better hear and see what the commentator was saying about the president and the congress.  It just so happened that there was a young man sitting in this section and he was talking to another waiting customer about his job in one of the local schools.

Living Between The Line: watch the video then read the book.
Living Between The Line: watch the video then read the book.

Living Between the Line Book Video

He talked about some of the challenges that he faced while growing up and the challenges of interacting with some of these young people.  He talked with such passion that I stopped listening to MSNBC and began listening to him.  He said that those who were educating and guiding these young people needed to work more diligently to better understand them so they could be more effective at mentoring them.

When the person that he was talking to was called for his turn in the chair of the young barber that always leaves the bald spot in my head, I struck up a conversation with this young man.  By the time that I was called for my haircut, I had thoroughly vetted him and was convinced that he really cared about the young people at his school and wanted to see them become responsible citizens in their communities.

During the course of our conversation – and my uninvited listening excursion into the conversation between him and the other waiting customer, he talked about the importance of these young students being held to account for their actions, being eligible and responsible voters and being able to effectively communicate and resolve issues without resorting to violence.  And on the occasions when violence did occur, being able to effectively communicate with one another after the fact in order to avoid any further violence.

By the time that I left the barbershop I couldn’t stop thinking about how refreshing it was to hear this young man talking about caring for and mentoring these young people rather than about how unpolished and prone to violence they were.  I hope that all of the school districts will strive to hire more young men and women like him.

No matter our political affiliation, it is important that each of us do our part to assure that our school district has programs in place that will help assure the hiring, training and retention of competent, proactive, fair-minded educators.  To do this we must place people with those qualities on our school boards.  In order to do that, we must vote them in.  So remember to value the franchise and always vote; not just in presidential elections.

Eulus Dennis

Senator Mitch McConnell’s Hollow Words of Reconciliation

Soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sounded words of reconciliation shortly after the midterm elections ended. He said that the American people want their elected leaders to govern and this is what both Parties should do.  He said that just because there is a divided government …”I don’t think it means [the American people] don’t want us to do anything.”

How ironic it is that the senator who, when he was Senate Minority Leader, said that his number one priority was to make President Obama a one-term president had an epiphany and now believes that Democrats and Republicans should work together and govern. Was this sudden awakening brought on by the realization that he will soon be the Senate Majority Leader?  Was the ordinary but striking occurrence that took place the realization that he is the one who must now seek common ground between the Democratic and Republican senators and not just block or obstruct and engage in finger-pointing if he harbors any hope of a meaningful legacy as Senate Majority Leader?

It is also worth noting that these supposed words of conciliation did not come without a rider. There was a warning attached that said if you take steps to unilaterally do anything to move forward on trying to correct the immigration problem it will poison the well and be like waving a red flag in front of a bull.  That meant that any potential cooperation from Republicans would be lost.

It appears that the well has been poison for the past six years because the Republicans certainly haven’t cooperated with President Obama on any initiatives that he put forward. On the contrary, they have balked at supporting him on things that they regularly supported in the past and even withdrawn their support for bills they themselves initiated once he decided to support them.

Senator McConnell said that he would fix the Senate so that it operates again. What a curious thing to say when he worked so hard to break it.  He was not alone in those efforts but there is no getting around the fact that he was the minority leader when he said that his number one priority was to make President Obama a one-term president.

But some would say that what Senator McConnell said is behind us and the American people have spoken and given the Republicans a mandate, which was indicated by way of their resounding victory in the midterm elections. Wait a minute.  Doesn’t it still matter what percentage of the American people actually voted in the midterm elections?  Doesn’t it matter that there were new voter ID laws put into place in some states and some people who had been able to vote since the day that they became eligible voters were unable to vote in this midterm election?  Doesn’t it matter that voting days were reduced in some states, voting hours were cut back and there were fewer polling places available?

There is no doubt that fewer people vote in midterm elections than in presidential elections. And there is no doubt that a cross-section of those who vote in the midterm elections is less representative of America as a whole than a cross-section of those who vote in the presidential elections.  This is by no means an excuse for those who fail to exercise their right to vote during midterm elections; nor is it meant to in any way demean the voice of those who did vote; but to claim a mandate from the American people based on the results of the 2014 midterm elections without a caveat is quite a stretch.

Eulus Dennis

A Message to Those Who Did Not Vote in The Midterm Elections

The 2014 midterm elections are over. Although ballots are still being counted in some of the close races and there will be at least one state that will hold a run-off in December because neither candidate for the US senate received at least 50% of the votes cast, the damage has been done, or the repair has been made – depending on whether your choice of color is red or blue.  Red was the color of choice for the majority of those who actually took the time to vote.

Speaker Boehner said that, and I paraphrase here, by electing so many Republicans to office and kicking out the Democrats who supported President Obama, Americans sent a clear message that Obamacare is a failure and they want it repealed. What?  Most Republicans did not talk specifically about the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) during their campaign.

What they talked about was Ebola, ISIS, people entering the country illegally, the beheading of innocent Americans and any other negative things that were occurring leading up to the midterm elections and laid the blame for what they called the poor handling of those situations squarely at President Obama’s feet. Then they tied any Democrat who was up for reelection to the President and what they labeled as his failures and implied that these candidates too were just as responsible because they had voted in favor of many of the issues that President Obama supported.

That sounds more like fear mongering to me. And it has nothing at all to do with Obamacare, which is a law that helped many Americans who had no health insurance because they could not afford it to finally be able to get health coverage.  It is still helping them and offers hope to those who are still without coverage.

It could have offered hope and help to even more people if Republican controlled states had not refused to expand their Medicaid programs and had it not been for all of the negative messaging and predictions of failure by Republican lawmakers before and after Obamacare became law. Good news though for all of those Americans who Speaker Boehner says want this law repealed; he has vowed to continue his efforts to repeal or destroy it.

The US Supreme Court has recently agreed to hear the case regarding Obamacare and for some of us that is a scary proposition. The Court did not have to agree to hear this case but the fact that they did means that at least four of the Justices agreed to hear it.  Even if they rule against the administration in a way that does not strike down the entire law, they can still gut it by ruling against vital parts of it.  Remember the voting rights ruling?

There are those groups who have key unresolved issues at stake who turned out in very low numbers. Many of the eligible voters who turned out in low numbers or did not vote at all were among those who heavily criticized President Obama as the midterms approached and made inflammatory statements like ‘the President has thrown us under the bus.’  Did those same voters throw the President under the bus?  Where were they during the midterm elections?

No matter your political affiliation, if you fail to vote, it does not matter in the least! My message and admonition to all eligible voters is that we need to make a commitment to ourselves right now to always vote; and not just during the Presidential election cycle.  And because I am a Democrat and believe that the Democratic Party has the winning message that will bring our country together, lead us forward and help it and all Americans to prosper; I admonish all Democrats – especially those who did not vote during the 2014 midterm elections, to resolve to always vote from now on.

Democrats are in a deep hole that it will probably take more than a decade to dig ourselves out of because Republicans now totally control at least 29 states. That gives them a massive amount of power to control things at the state level and, make no mistake; this is not a small thing.  That is why Democratic voters must gear-up now for 2016.  Winning then will be the best way to stop the Republican onslaught and reverse the ill-advised direction in which they are steering America.

Eulus Dennis

Still, Governor John Hickenlooper

I never was a real Hickenlooper supporter but my sister was from day one. She loved the quirky commercials he did, especially the one where he rode the little scooter.  I think that it was called a Vespa.  Anyway, she really liked that particular commercial and she was one of his biggest fans.  She was always trying to convince me of what a great governor he would be because he didn’t fit the regular politician mold: he was his own man, she said.

After all of this time I have finally come to agree with her. Why now?  Because I followed his 2014 midterm election campaign closely and listened intently to all of the rhetoric that surrounded it.  The Republicans were doing everything within their power to force him to resort to negative ads against his opponent.  He refused to take the bait.

When he continued to run on his record and avoid the negative advertising despite all of the pressure that the Republicans were applying, they made their own add that said he was lying when he said he would not run negative ads. I can’t remember for sure but I think they showed excerpts from the Bob Beauprez ad where he sold a bank that he owned in Colorado and it later failed and taxpayers had to foot the bill.  The point was that this was a negative ad and the implication was that Governor Hickenlooper was responsible for it.

Credit attribution: Beelde Photography/Shutterstock.com
Credit attribution: Beelde Photography/Shutterstock.com

As it turned out, the race was really tight. I can imagine that key members of his own campaign staff were pushing him to go negative, but Hick – I read somewhere that this was an affectionate name used to refer to him by some of his closest allies, so no disrespect intended – stuck to his decision.  If I’m right in my assumption about members of his staff pushing him to go negative, they must have been going crazy and pulling their hair out by the time that the final numbers for each candidate were tallied.  But all of them must have made it through okay because I didn’t see any bald staffers, at least none who had hair just before things really got tight during the race, accompanying him at his victory press conference.

Okay, I admit that I drifted when I started to have fun with this article and strayed from my initial point, which was that I never was a real Hickenlooper supporter. So permit me to get back to that point.  As I watched his campaign progress through until the end and he never ran any negative ads but talked about Colorado and his record the entire time, I found that very refreshing.

Although I voted for Governor Hickenlooper in the previous election it wasn’t with the same gusto that I now feel. I’m a real Hickenlooper fan just like my sister was.  So, Congratulations, Governor!  More politicians should be like you!

Eulus Dennis

The Democrats Were Soundly Defeated

I was cautiously optimistic when the polls opened on November 4, 2014 but I became more depressed as the day progressed. By the time the polls began to close in state after state, I found myself staring blankly at the television screen and wondering why so many people fail to vote.

The percentage of eligible voters who actually vote in the Presidential elections is bad enough but the percentage that vote during the midterm elections is even worse. To be frank, the percentage in both election cycles is abysmal.  How can we be so nonchalant about such a prized right and toss it into the trash – that’s exactly what we do when we do not vote – the same way we would toss out a useless scrap of paper?

People in other countries who are not allowed to vote for the leaders of their choice would love to have the privilege of deciding who will lead their country. America regularly advocates on behalf of those in foreign countries who are fighting for democracy, which includes the right to vote.  There have been times when, in addition to applying political pressure, we have even put Americans in harm’s way to assist those who were struggling to establish a democratic society.

We have insisted that elections in these countries be fair and above board and that there be no election tampering during the election process. Yet, we struggle with keeping our own elections process fair and above board; if we do not, it certainly appears that we do.

There are a number of situations that occurred during these 2014 midterm elections that didn’t pass the smell test but it is very unlikely that anyone can really prove that there was a skunk in the woodpile. In other words, although there were some very curious occurrences in some of the states and it looked like someone was cheating, the likelihood of actually proving that they were is miniscule.  Time and again Florida has been a perfect example of these occurrences.

Pundits express a number of reasons as to why the Democrats took such a shellacking on November 4th. They said things like; it was President Obama’s low poll numbers, the economy didn’t improve, the economy was improving too slowly, although the economy improved – it improved too slowly and most of the American people did not feel its impact upon their daily lives, President Obama has been a weak and ineffective leader and blah blah blah blah blah.

The Republican Party defined all of these things and Democrats throughout the country swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. Instead of campaigning on all of the positive things that the Democrats and President Obama had achieved – he honored the will of the American people, they ran away from him and their accomplishments!  Politicians; what can you say about them?  Or perhaps the question should be what can’t you say about them?

The fact of the matter is that by deserting the President and refusing to have him campaign on their behalf did much more harm than good.

As eligible voters, we played a key part in this shellacking too. Maybe things still would have gone in favor of the Republicans in a big way but, at least, we could feel comfortable in knowing that this was what the majority of the American people wanted and that it did not reflect mostly what the extreme right-wing or left-wing of that party wanted.  I say this with a reasonable degree of confidence that I do not appear to avid Republicans as just another sore loser because of the abysmal percentage of eligible voters who actually vote in the midterm elections.

Those of us who did not take the time to exercise our privilege to vote do not have a legitimate reason to complain about whatever comes next as our newly elected officials unite with their incumbents and begin to exercise their power. The right to vote might be treated like a trivial thing now by some of us as long as we know that we have that right, but let someone even try to take it away from us and I have no doubt that our attitude regarding the franchise would change real fast!  The frightening thing about that is that by reacting instead of being proactive we could find ourselves in a harrowing situation.

Eulus Dennis

North Dakota’s Personhood Vote Could Affect More Than Abortion – The Atlantic

FARGO, N.D.—On Tuesday, voters here will decide the fate of a proposed amendment to the state constitution that has provoked excitement and fear among combatants in the country’s never-ending abortion wars.

The ballot initiative known as Measure 1—which would enshrine “the inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development”—has attracted millions of dollars in contributions, as well as the involvement of one of the nation’s best-known conservative strategists.

From the start, Measure 1 was aimed squarely at ending abortion. “I’m hoping it will be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade,” the amendment’s chief sponsor in the North Dakota legislature declared last year. Leaders of the burgeoning personhood movement—who believe that establishing legal rights for the unborn is the key to overturning that 1973 decision and ending the right to abortion—have made Measure 1’s passage a national priority.

via North Dakota’s Personhood Vote Could Affect More Than Abortion – The Atlantic.