A lazy man's vote

We draw yet another year to a close, Father Time has come a courting again. The curtains on the battles of a long national campaign have long since been pulled. The pain of loss for some is subsiding, while the pleasure of victory for some has gone stale. The battle lines once again in Washington have blurred as the civilian leaders of this country flaunt and sometimes sell their vote to the highest bidder. The lobbyists have found their new champions and are once again filling their coffers with gold. As we the voters sit back and wonder what the heck is going on up there. Democrats and Republicans alike sit back and wonder where their voice went too. If I could count how many times I have been told that a voter has been disillusioned by the person he voted for, I would be a very rich man.

I spent several months trying to actively elect one side of a national campaign knowing full and well that I did not agree with many of his platform issues. However, the fact that was more surprising to me was the fact that 90% of the voters that I talked too were voting not from their own personal knowledge but from a general knowledge of what some media persona had told them. When they were cornered on a specific issue the normal answers was a very honest one “I don’t know.” This answer I can live with. It was the very next answer that both shamed me and infuriated me at the same time. “I don’t care.” These words in my opinion are both the most irresponsible words any self respecting American can utter. You might as well walk up to Mt. Vernon, VA and spit on the grave of George Washington, or burn the great written works of Jefferson, FDR and Reagan. With these three simple words you have discarded with disdain one of the fundamental rights that our fathers that have come before us lived, worked, bleed and died for.

John F. Kennedy once said, “The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” I echo these words with all my heart. “The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter,” Dwight D. Eisenhower. These words make me want to cry. At the end of the day what happens in this nation’s capital is our fault. If you let the likes of Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Olbermann, Glenn Beck, or any of them fools from Hollywood decided your vote for you I say shame on you. While we share the burden of this country’s present and future endeavors, if you are not educated on what the issues are. Keep your mouth shut, your ears open and maybe you might be able to find a responsible answer that is not “I don’t care” next time you are asked.