A Brilliant System at Your Service

Let's keep it simple: voting isn't about how it adds up, or how it compares to another's vote. It's about how you enact one of the duties you have living in a free society.

So take a couple of hours to really pay attention to what the candidates say and what the issues are in your local elections between now and next Tuesday.

Make a plan, as they say, for how you'll cast your vote: treat it like a doctor's appointment. Maybe drive by the polling place a day or so early to see where you'll park. Drive by that day to see how long the line is. Be prepared to take the time it takes to actually vote, once your mind is made up.

Then sit back with the rest of us next Tuesday night and see how it adds up.

Some say it will be a nail biter and that we won't even know that night who the winner will be. I somewhat think it will be a blow-out. Or maybe I hope so, a strong winner either way, something to take us off this divided edge.

I don't have a problem with disagreement; I do have a problem with demonizing. We're all in this together, this thing called "America." Acting as if the revolution is around the corner and that we're somehow going to separate from one another is dangerous and stupid.

I don't believe any of the polls, by the way. I think people aren't really saying what they'll do. And those that do? As a political pundit I read this morning wrote, "How many of you answer your phone when the number is unknown?" (Most of the polls we see these days are done via cell phones.)

My gut is that it will be over quickly. More 2008 and 2022 then 2016.

I'm saying it now, early: October 30, 2024. We'll know before midnight who the winner is.

(Feel free to let me know how wrong or right I am.)

I am a great believer in the America systems of governing. We have survived as a democracy not because of ideological reasons but mostly because, most of the time, in the nick of time, we get it right. Not every time and sometimes for long periods of time we get "it" very wrong.

Whether I personally agree with or disagree with a candidate, office holder or even on a given issue, I do respect those who put in the time and are committed to public service. Few of us would trade shoes with them. From the highest office to the most local of appointees, the great majority of those who choose pubic service do so because of a sense of community. Not all of them, all of the time, etc. I start with respect for them all.

The question I often pose to people who want to defund this or that service: would you be willing to do it? We can be quick to criticize, but would we fill those shoes?

Voting on the other hand is something all of us can do. So do it!