BE A VOTER, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD

Do YOU vote? Do you know who represents you?

I don't mean just in big races like presidential primaries, the presidency, senate and representatives seats or gubernatorial candidacies. I'm talking about town councils, school boards, state legislatures etc.. In effect, all elections.

Even a national POTUS election for the leader of practically the whole frickin' world hardly bestirs eligible voters to visit the polling booths.

It might have taken decades - nay, centuries - but we are now living with the results of our laissez faire attitude toward political involvement. In failing to corral the uber-Left over the years we have paralyzed our Congress because instead of taking care of business, moderates or conservatives are forced to spend all their time swatting away extreme agendas.

I realize that our branches of government were specifically set up to move slowly so as not to enable sweeping thoughtless changes, but this is now just ridiculous. Worthy of a Southpark parody, even.

So - back to watching our government with a squinty, cynical eye. Not only do many of us throw up our hands in disgust at the candidates presented to us, we also despair of making a difference with our one little, bitty vote. We think we aren't knowledgeable enough on the issues of the day. We trust our government or we trust someone else to vote in the best person.

Here's my advice. If the best you can do is to just vote along party lines, then do it. If you vote for someone because they look nice, you think they have experience, or you love/hate the way they talk, or France wants you to, then do it. And you can't go far wrong by voting on instinct. At least you're voting.

Just transforming America into a nation of voters rather than observers will make all elected officials and candidates sit up straight in their seats and recall that they work for us.