“Whew, I’m glad that’s over!” That’s a common refrain I’ve heard over the past few days. Everyone’s glad the election is over so we can get back to our “normal” lives, whatever that is. What’s normal anyway? This new era we are all experiencing sure doesn’t seem normal unless craziness is so commonplace that it is now normal!
We’ve all been bombarded, assaulted and overrun with campaign promises, insults about candidates, and on and on. Now I know how a possum that’s been run over by a car and left on the side of the road must feel like!
“Vote for me and I will give you free medical care, free education, steaks for dinner AND a big tax cut!” Yeah, and I am going to win the lottery! My friend, Hilda, said “I’ve been promised more things by politicians than my first husband promised on our engagement night!”
So, we can all agree that we’re glad that this election season is over. We lost some and we won some. If you aren’t happy, well you only have to wait a couple of years and this merry-go-round happens all over again, much to the joy of the television, radio and newspaper advertising sales people!
We all gripe about this whole election process but, really, isn’t it a whole lot better than living under a dictatorship that exists only with phony elections and there are no real choices? John Adams once said, “I study and participate in politics so that my children will be free to study mathematics and philosophy.” He is very kindly telling all of us to stop complaining, get off our butts, and get involved in the process. Yes it can be distasteful and annoying but it is the best system in the world!
Abraham Lincoln told us, “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” Sometimes we get so tired of the whole election process that we back away and don’t even participate. I have a couple of friends who refuse to be involved in the political process, stating that “I am sick of all of them and how I vote won’t make a bit of difference so why get all worked up about something I can’t change?”
Humorist and author Will Rogers was one of the biggest critics of politicians and the political process but never did he consider not participating. He participated with glee, enjoying gigging the politicians with his sharp-tongued wit. He once said, “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts!” To not participate in the political process is to give license to someone else to run your life for you. Heck, that’s like giving someone else your checkbook and telling them to do your grocery shopping for you. Pretty soon you’re eating Spam every meal!
George Orwell said, “In our age there is no such thing as keeping out of politics. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.” Gosh George, that makes me want to run for office!
Yeah folks, right now we feel battered, bruised and maybe even lied to but, like Rocky Balboa, we’ve all got to answer the bell for the next round so as you sit around your card clubs and gripe about the political campaigns, as you hide from the fundraisers for the next election, as you long to just stick your head in the sand and do only the things that make you feel good, remember the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict!”
Judi Tabler lives in Pawnee County and is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune. She can be reached at bluegrasses@gmail.com. Visit her website juditabler.com.
