I grew up with a belief in the idea of government by the people and for the people. As I’m aging out, I begin to realize that, as one of the people, I don’t have enough hours in the day to keep up with what government is doing. On one hand, I realize that it is probably that more information is available – that the internet has created a situation where I can be better informed in Trego than the bureau chief in Washington DC was a half-century ago.
And yet, this week I saw my wife deprived of the right to vote because the complexity of delivering ballots by mail was beyond governmental competence. I can’t even know where the blunder that disenfranchised her occurred – whether it happened in the postal service or with the Lincoln County Election Administration. I do know that we can no longer vote in the Trego School for a local election – a half-mile away. Instead, the election administrator, trying to be helpful, offered her the opportunity to drive to Libby to get, and cast the ballot that she did not receive. It’s hard to have government by the people when bureaucratic ineptitude can disenfranchise voters.
I look at the political announcements that do get to me – Kurt Alme’s mailer headlines that he will Cut Taxes and Cut Crime in the U.S. Senate. I’m in favor of cutting crime in the U.S. Senate – and it says he’s endorsed by the Governor and the President. I just wish his filing had been a bit more open. And I got another announcement from a guy name Flint. He included five bullet points (the last was ‘Make Montana Affordable Again’ – which seems beyond the powers of any single congressman) and an endorsement from Donald Trump. He encourages me to return my ballot by June 2nd. Hopefully both of us will receive a ballot this time.
I do have some thoughts on voting. In Lincoln County, we tend to vote out incumbent county commissioners – this happens because their 6-year terms give them just enough time to get some idea about which county department heads can be trusted (hint: in general the county road guys play a square game – the rest not so much). If an incumbent politician votes against my best interests, I figure on voting against him or her. Sorry about that, Neil. Nice guy, won’t even understand why I figure Zooey Zephyr voted to keep more options for voters while he cast a ballot as a party hack. He will make it into the state senate- and his vote as a state representative was to eliminate my ability to cast a write-in vote against an unopposed candidate. All I can do is leave the circle by his name blank.
In general, I prefer libertarian type candidates. I don’t see many of them. Somehow, without any discussion, both main parties manage to field candidates who lack support for specific civil liberties. The repugnants want to make voting much harder, the dims want to make it easier for non-citizens. Somehow, I get the feeling that the American voter is someone both parties would prefer not to encounter.
I think it was Lincoln who cautioned that “government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.” Both parties, at all levels, seem to regard involvement by the people as an irritating nuisance.
So if you’re lucky enough to receive your ballot, and you see an unopposed candidate, do the responsible thing. Leave the circle unmarked. Voting for unopposed candidates will “only encourage the bastards.”
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