by David Hornestay

Created on: February 04, 2007   Last Updated: August 03, 2011

Sure, you should vote in the next election. While you don't have to make a choice for every office on the ballot, you can be pretty certain that there will be one or more contests in which one candidate can materially improve or damage the city, county, state, or nation you live in.

Let's skip the philosophical and moral issues of individual responsibility and the vindication of the bloody struggles that have been fought for the right to vote. Let's look only at the practical aspects of exercising choice. Presidents can take us into unwise and expensive conflicts or other overseas adventures or ignore developing dangers that cost far more to combat later rather than sooner. Their life-tenure appointments of Supreme Court justices can narrow our rights. Mayors and city councils can waste our resources and let our neighborhoods deteriorate. Politicians at every level can line their pockets with bribes and divert tax dollars.

The just-concluded struggle over raising the debt ceiling offers a clear case for the importance of your vote.  Whether you believe the American people have been well served by the bitterly contested and messy resulting compromise or not, it's indisputable that  the economic future of the nation was in the hands of the members of Congress and the President.  As negotiations dragged on, the leaders on both sides were constantly counting noses to see whether they had the votes to pass or stop the various proposals under consideration.  When the Speaker of the House of Representatives had to repeatedly postpone consideration of his bill, it was obvious that the vote of every  member, and therefore the votes of all those who sent the member to Congress, meant a lot.

So what you think now and what you think in November 2012 about what the President and Congress did-and how they did  it-should make you eager to show your approval or disapproval at the ballot box and give the responsibility for solving big problems to people in whom you have confidence.      

Entirely apart from unusual crises and partisan warfare, honest, sensible, far-seeing legislators and executives can solve or alleviate problems we can't handle ourselves. These kinds of leaders in the past created social security, medical care for the aged, college loans, and Head Start, and made our air and water cleaner than they were thirty years ago. These things need continued work, and our votes determine which kinds of people will make the decisions.

Granted, we often get totally negative information about candidates, leaving us to ponder who is the lesser of evils. I admit that in fifty years of voting, I once exercised my right by declining to choose between presidential contenders who both turned me off, and I have skipped contests from time to time on state and local ballots. But when there are issues of war and peace, economic fairness, and environmental safety, I feel it is my obligation to find out as much as I can about candidates' views and qualifications and vote whenever possible.

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