IMHO: Ballot 'Initiative'

On Tuesday, the nation will go to the polls (those who haven't voted early or absentee, anyway) and make a decision that has obsessed political junkies and pollsters alike for far too long.

For all the talk of “hope” and “change,” this extended election cycle has offered little of either, IMHO.

Now, I realize that there are those among you who are highly enamored of one candidate or the other – or at least highly un-enamored of the other.   But, IMHO, if you don’t have some concerns about how both of the candidates would conduct themselves in office on at least some issues, you haven’t been paying attention.  

Nonetheless, our nation’s tried and tested method of screening and selecting representatives has, with all its flaws, done its job.  

Now it’s our turn.  

Come Tuesday, we have a real choice to make.   And this one – more than most, perhaps more than any in my lifetime – feels like a “game changer.”  

As individual voters, it may not feel like we can have much impact, particularly if your state reliably goes “blue” or “red” (whether you do or not).   However, the reality is that our votes do make a difference – if not in the result, then at least in the margin of the result; not just in terms of who sits in the Oval Office, but the tenor of voices on Capitol Hill, the influences in state legislatures, the composition of that local school board….

These are the people who will set in motion policies and practices that can have an impact that can, for good or ill, be felt far beyond their terms of office.

You owe it to yourself, to those you love, to those who have fought and died to preserve your right – your privilege – your responsibility – to vote.

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