Politics can be extremely frustrating but we must all partake of this bitter-sweet potion if we are truly to be a part of our great democracy. It is hard to look at sometimes, as we all offer our own special ingredients, while the master chef blends the mixture and continuously stirs the pot. Blah, it tastes terrible! The chef continues to stir and blend, adjust the temperature – add a little more conservative spices, a bit more liberal spices and a pinch of independent spices before finally; bam! The porridge is ready. It’s time for a taste test. Hey, not too bad!
To some it is tasty, to others it is okay, and there will always be some who find it to simply be edible. Odds are that no one will find it to be delicious. Despite which category you are in, you will find solace in knowing that you contributed added-value to the final product. The only reason why it is not delicious is because the chef neither used all of your special ingredients nor did they include them in the amount that you specified. You can take comfort in knowing that had you provided no ingredients at all it might not even be edible; and you would be left to either starve or be force-fed until your next opportunity to participate in the porridge preparation.
Okay, maybe it is a pretty dubious analogy but most likely you got the point. We may find many things distasteful about our democratic process but it is what it is. Obviously a democracy is messy but it cannot function properly and efficiently without all eligible voters being responsible and regularly voting. Just because there is a lot of squabbling going on among our politicians in Washington doesn’t mean we should shirk our responsibility as voters. As a matter of fact, it should make us even more determined to make sure to put people in office who are going to do their very best to represent us and look out for our best interest while looking out for the overall best interest of our country.
Keep these things in mind as we move toward the 2016 elections. I mentioned in an earlier post that the damage has already been done – or the repair has already been made depending on whether your color preference is red or blue. Regardless of that preference, the real issue is that we not allow politicians to flaunt the fact that they believe that the majority of voters are uninformed and can be constantly used as pawns to further their political ambitions. We must always vote and show them that we will hold them to account.
In the meantime, following this post are links to articles that you can read to help bring you up to speed on some of the most recent political talk.