Despite the plethora of signs which have sprouted up along our roadways, the flood of smiling faces showing up at community events with “vote for me” buttons on their lapels and the increase in robocalls filling up our voicemail and home answering machines, it is amazing the number of people who don’t realize that an election is fast approaching, or even have a clue about the various offices up for election or who is running.
Year after year people give their elected officials lower and lower approval ratings in the polls, and election cycle after election cycle they either return the same people to office or, worse, don’t even bother to go out and vote.
Frankly, we deserve the government — at all levels — that we have.
In order for our country to thrive, or for that matter just survive, we need an informed and engaged public that takes seriously its role in government. You can’t just put the whole thing on autopilot and expect everything to work, yet for many of us that is just what we do.
One hundred years ago, or even 50 years ago, we might have had an excuse for not being totally up on all the election races or the stands of the various candidates. Back then, getting the message out took longer. So it is more than a little ironic that as the years have progressed and access to various sources of information has become easier, the public general has become more disengaged.
Candidates are still going door to door meeting prospective voters as they did years ago. They are showing up at community events and are placing their signs in all their supporters’ yards. But they are also using social media to spread the word about themselves and their campaigns.
Community forums that previously you would have had to drag yourself out of the house and travel to some other location to see are now available to you in the comfort of your living room. In the recent series of forums put on by the Times, the Community Media Center, WTTR Radio and The League of Women Voters, the events were live streamed on public access television, as well as on the Internet.
Additionally, the radio station and the CMC have the forums available on their websites, so even if you missed them the first time, you can easily go back at any time and find out about the candidates in the various races.
By doing a little research, you’d probably be surprised to see there are some good Democrats running for some of the county offices despite the fact that they likely don’t have much of a chance of winning in November’s general election. There are also some good Republicans running for the state offices, but they likely don’t have much chance overcoming the huge Democratic majority in the state. Too many people still abdicate their personal responsibility to the two major parties. We see it time and again as, in state races, poor Democratic candidates beat much better Republican ones, and here in Carroll where folks would rather elect a bad Republican over a good Democrat simply because their only interest is whether there is an “R” or a “D” attached to the candidate’s campaign.
In reality, with the ease at which we can spread messages these days, political parties have become dinosaurs. They basically just suck up money to distribute to the anointed few in their little clubs, and you and I don’t have a lot of say in their goings-on, unless we bring our checkbook.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
We all have easy access to a ton of information on all the candidates in all the offices. Even just a few minutes in the evening browsing websites, or doing some simple candidate name searches during your lunch break, will help us to become the informed public that is so essential to our form of government.
We’ve seen in recent years the joy and exuberation on the faces of people in other countries who have, after years of struggle, gotten the right to vote for their leaders. Some faced the threat of violence, yet were determined to exercise their new right. Here, meanwhile, we have become complacent. We have put the country on autopilot and abdicated our own personal responsibilities, even as we complain daily about the results.
The primary election is June 24. It will be interesting to see if the historic trends of lower voter turnout continue, or whether we finally have decided that we will determine our own future.
Jim Lee is the Carroll County Times’ Editor. Email him at jim.lee@carrollcountytimes.com.
