Tomorrow is election day.
Well, actually the past few weeks have been “election day” for all the
states that allow early voting.
So tomorrow will be somewhat anticlimactic. That will be true in more ways than one.
A large percentage of the potential votes have already been
cast. Whether most of those are
legitimate is another question. Between
the absentee ballots or early voting by people who might not be citizens or who
have registered in more than one state like college students, by house pets, and
the ever-reliable “dead” and vacant-lot voters, a sizable number of the living
and dead have already exercised their Constitutionally-protected right to
vote.
I suspect most of those votes have been for Democrats. That’s
not surprising given the Democrats’ adroit use of tactics to thwart or delay any
voter ID requirements.
Motor-voter registration has been a god-send to the Democrats. In some states with motor-voter they’ve found
that up to 7% of registered voters aren’t even U.S. citizens. And with never-ending Federal lawsuits to
prevent states from purging their voter rolls of convicted felons, the dead,
people registered in multiple states, and non-citizens, there’s no telling who
a legal voter is.
That’s intentional, and why Democrats can’t afford to see
their base reduced by something as silly as proving who you say you are when
voting.
This year it may not make that much of a difference. Obama is
deeply unpopular not just with Republicans, but with independents and a lot of
Democrats, too. Even Senate and House candidates
running as Democrats act like they’ve never met him.
That doesn’t mean the Republicans will take the races they
need to win to hold the House and take back the Senate. And even if they do, so
what?
First, they have to get past the Democrats. That will be
tough. Democrats have proven to be exceptionally
skilled at “finding” lost ballots when they need to, even as far back as the
Kennedy/Nixon race and more recently with Al Franken’s “victory” in Minnesota.
Plus, Democrats generally believe the end always justifies
the means, no matter how sleazy or dishonest the path to that end might
be. Liberal Democrats in particular see nothing
wrong with voting a few times, voting for their pet, or channeling their dead or
imprisoned relatives’ voting preferences so their voices are heard on election
day, because it’s all for a righteous cause.
It’s not going to be easy to overcome all that.
But let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that
Republicans running for the House or Senate somehow manage to overcome all the
Democrat chicanery – and the Republicans’ own propensity to snatch defeat from
the jaws of victory – and manage to hold the House and retake the Senate. Then what? Can we expect sweeping change in
Washington?
Don’t bet on it. In
reality – and that’s what this blog is all about – nothing much will change. The Republicans will huff and they’ll puff
but they won’t be all that different than the Democrats they replace. Sure, the
first few months may be interesting, but before long they’ll slide into the
comfortable Congressional status quo we suffer from now.
They won’t control spending. They won’t cut back on pork. They
won’t rein in entitlements. They’ll do little of substance to change ObamaCare,
protect Social Security, resolve our illegal immigration problem, or deal with
the need for term limits. They might move on Voter ID and a national ID card
but don’t count on it. But they will preserve all their Congressional perks. They’ll
reward their friends and punish their enemies. And gridlock will still reign
supreme, just as before.
What’s the difference?
Honestly, there isn’t much.
So why vote?
Politicians need to be constantly reminded that they serve
at the pleasure of the people – not just the special interests – they are
supposed to represent. Voting is a way to show politicians that their power is
not absolute, and can be challenged and revoked.
That’s the primary reason to vote. Even if you think one
side is as bad as the other, you need to vote for the lesser of two evils if
need be. Just hold your nose and vote.
If you don’t vote, apathy wins. Our current politicians in
both parties have gotten to where they are largely because of voter apathy. That’s
allowed the extremists in both parties to hijack primaries to our collective
detriment, and prevent more rational voices to be heard.
Right now we have a two-party system which isn’t working.
Many people, including me, believe it is irrevocably broken. Today there are more
people registered as independents than registered as Democrats, or as Republicans.
That means there’s hope.
Maybe one day we will have a viable alternative to the parties that share
power at present.
But we won’t get there if we allow politicians to rely on
apathy to keep them in office.
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