Keep America Purple

Over the next couple of weeks, there will likely be several posts in this vein.  With the mid-term election coming up, we need every reminder possible to get people to the polls to vote.  Voter turnout in the 2014 mid-term election was only 36.4%, the lowest it had been since 1942, despite having the highest spend up to that point ($3.7 billion).

So again, vote.

Early voting is currently underway - take that opportunity if you can.   If not, get to the polls on Tuesday, November 6, 2018.

And no matter what anyone tells you, do NOT vote straight party anything.  That's just bad advice.  Plain and simple.

No one party automatically has all the best candidates for their particular district, region, or state.  No one party has all the best policies for governance.  Read up on the candidates and vote for those that best represent you regardless of what little letter follows their name on the ballot.

There is a world of resources on the web to find out information on the candidates and issues on your ballot, including the two below.

Ontheissues.org

VoteSmart.org

There are literally hundreds of resources out there and a breadth of information available at your finger tips.

Because here is the truth - we need each other.  We need both parties, Democrats and Republicans.  We need progressives and we need conservatives.  We need progressives to push us forward, to make us confront inequalities where they exist, and push us into new solutions.  To push us to change.  We also need conservatives to question changes so that we make the right ones, to fight for what is worth preserving, to remind us of our past.  We need the push and pull that holds us to our standards, but reminds us of reality.

Governing is supposed to be hard.  It's supposed to require compromise, to require consensus. We need governing bodies that are not all Democrats or not all Republicans.  The worst thing that could happen to our country would be unopposed control by one party of all three branches of government.  That way leads to the mantra "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely."  We need for our legislative and executive bodies to need to work for their achievements.  To have to go across the aisle and reach agreements with the opposition.  True, we do not need obstruction, and that is where our current parties have gone astray.  But we do need vigorous debate and deliberation on the laws and policies that will govern our country.

We need a judicial branch that is impartial and will occasionally force us to move forward, whether the majority would vote for it or not.  We need their decisions like Brown v. the Board of Education or Lawrence v. Texas.

We need representatives in our government that truly reflect the diversity of our great country.  And we've got a long way to go in that regard.  While the current Congress has reached a new height of diversity, it remains as a whole is still disproportionately white and male.

And we need you to get out and vote.  We need to hear every citizen's voice.

Keep America Purple.  Because that is what accurately represents us.