Tuesday coming up, the nation votes
All those who by now haven’t voted yet
‘Twill be a record turnout pollsters note
Of those that can, some half the polls may get
So why do voters stay away from polls?
Are they just lazy, maybe something else?
Perhaps indifference to the words and goals
Of running candidates in TV ads that yell
They recognize that they are uninformed
That ads are often stating lies as truths
That blatant party bias is the norm
They dread the act of entering the booth
They do not want to vote their ignorance
They wouldn’t know if they were wrong or right
Their vote is worse than being meaningless
It could do damage worsening some plight
But those of us familiar with the news
How much is our vote out of ignorance?
How much do we vote other people’s views?
How much do we reflect our prejudice?
It is a hard endeavor in our press
Of many tasks we daily want to do
To take the time to keep ourselves abreast
To vote our knowledge and our conscience too
11/4/18
Very true words. Is democracy on trial if issues are too complex or news media and internet is too confusing. Are we better off without political parties? Should we keep the electoral college?
Are most of the citizens in the country able to really know what to vote for?
Trumps election and political party divisions and the rise of nationalism should make us all think about re assessing the essentials of how we elect our officials
These are questions that will need answers sooner than later. Where will the answers come from???
I remember, as a young man I lived in my own little bubble devoid of day-to-day politics. Like most kids today, I paid more attention to presidential elections and voted but I had no idea about what politically was happening around me. The difference between then and now is that generally one could trust both parties not to screw up the really important things. As to how to fix the situation. We can make minor changes around the edges such as suppressing voter suppression, automatic registration, and mail-in or internet balloting but I believe that a democracy has to be basically self healing. We’ll get an indication tomorrow.