Archive: Opinions

There are Hillary lovers.  There are Donald lovers.  There are Hillary haters who will vote for Donald even though they find such a vote repulsive.  There are Donald haters who also hate that they will vote for Hillary just to stop him.  And then there are those who can't bring themselves to vote for either of the major party candidates.  Many of them are questioning what the point even is in voting.

Is there any point in voting?  The electoral college system makes the popular vote irrelevant in some states, so what, exactly, is the point?  For example, here in New York Trump supporters can take it to the bank that the state will be voting for Clinton.  So is there a point if you don't agree with the inevitable outcome?  Well, yes.

Voting is a privilege, not a right or obligation.  Maybe it should be an obligation, because it is a way that every American of age can participate in deciding what the country will be, no matter how remotely.  Individual votes don't mean much, but collective ones do, and you can't have a collective vote without many individual ones.  The winner of an election is not the only outcome of a vote.  The last several votes have shown a deeply divided country, which has made it very difficult for leaders to lead.

And you don't throw away a privilege.  It is something to be used thoughtfully and proudly.  Not thrown away.

One candidate receiving a large portion of votes is taken as a mandate.  While candidates today sometimes claim that a few percentage points constitutes a mandate for his or her views, any thinking person knows it is not.  So one has to hope that even if the winner isn't a thinking person, he or she will be advised by someone who is.

According to the New York Times, only 14 percent of all primary voters voted for Clinton or Trump, which comes to nine percent of the US population.  The Pew Research Center reports that 74% of registered voters say it really matters who is elected in terms of the direction the country will take.  They also report that 19% actually trust the government.

So why vote if you can't abide any of the candidates?  That 14% figure is a powerful number.  What if the other 86% didn't vote for Clinton or Trump, but for someone else, either one of the other party candidates or simply writing in a name?  It may not prevent a Democrat or Republican from winning the White House, but it would be a powerful statement about how broken our system is and how much fixing it needs.  It might even drive elected officials to fix it.

OK, that was probably too naive and hopeful.  But it would certainly send a message that we're mad as hell, even if we continue to take it any more.  As long as it is possible to send a message with a vote, we all need to do it.  We all need to vote.

I am still of the mind that we should all write in my wife's name for President.  The benefits would be many.  She is a workaholic with good old fashioned down to earth values that meld the best ideas from both major political parties.  She is from the mid-west where people are friendly and have common sense.  She loves America, and would do her best for it.  She is good at bringing people together -- it's that mid-western hostess gene.  Oh boy can she throw a party!  (Not a political one.)  And she has been a community leader here in Lansing for a quarter of a century.

On top of that she is a huge fan of 'The West Wing', loves 'Madam Secretary' and 'House of Cards' and 'Alpha House', and we just started watching 'Designated Survivor' last night on the ABC streaming app.  By the way, not to be a Birther Movement supporter or anything, has it struck anyone else as ironic that neither the actor playing the President nor the one playing the First Lady on 'Designated Survivor' is eligible to actually be President because they were both born in England?  So she knows her way around the White House and how you should talk to Congress.

As for me, I would get to live quietly in a big house that, I am told, has its own movie theater and someone else to dust and mow.  I'm not a party person, but I could go and smile at diplomats and dignitaries and nod and make them feel glad to be there.  I don't really like big parties because I can't hear when everyone is talking.  So I have perfected smiling and nodding encouragingly even though I am bored to tears because I haven't the slightest idea what anyone is talking about because I can't hear what they're saying.  I believe that skill is what qualifies me to be the quintessential First Husband.

And think about it.  If she wins, in another four or eight years the Karen Veaner Presidential Library will be built here in Lansing, which would bring all kinds of tourism dollars and countless new jobs here and make up for whatever property tax outcome is going to happen with the power plant.

If you can't vote for Hillary or Donald I certainly would appreciate a vote for Karen.  That would be a vote for a good, solid, community-minded American who is not at either extreme, who works hard and cares about the country.  And it would mean that if you thought you would simply skip this election, you could participate in a quite palatable way, even if the outcome is bound to make you want to throw up a little.  When Hillary or Donald wins this thing a big turnout of people who voted for neither one of them might make them think twice about bounding forward with their equally unpopular agendas.

The point is, America is a democracy, and democracy only works if we all participate.  We don't move to Canada when things don't go our way.  We don't skip voting when things can't go our way.  We are what actually makes America great, and it doesn't work without all of us.  It is important for every voice to be heard.  Voting is the institutional way this is accomplished.

So even if you don't vote for Karen, it is important that you do vote for someone.  Vote outside the box if you can't vote for someone already in it.  But vote.

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