Contributed by Beatrice Adler
For the past weeks, I’ve devoted time to support candidates that I believe represent my concerns and values. I’ve knocked on over 100 doors in neighborhoods from downtown Palmer to Meadow Lakes. In the process, I’ve learned so much about our community’s residents’ attitudes toward our electoral process and the conduct of government.
I recently had the opportunity to ask several college students if they planned to vote. Their overwhelmingly negative or disinterested attitudes came as a shock. I had expected that educated young people, upon reaching the age at which they were eligible to cast their first vote, would have expressed enthusiasm or at least a bit of curiosity about the process. Nope and nope. Most weren’t registered or didn’t know if they were, and didn’t care to find out. I wonder if their parents vote. Perhaps not, reflecting on the responses many older adults gave to the same question.
I asked, “Do you plan to vote in the upcoming election?” The responses included everything from: “Yes, I always vote,” “I don’t know yet,” “It’s not my concern,” “No, it’s all rigged,” “It’s too much effort,” and “How do I tell the lies from the truth?”
That last one has me thinking about how to address what could be a terminal disease that has infected our civic health.
How can we discern what’s true or false when outright lies are commonplace strategies in political advertising? To counter that tactic, I would expect each candidate’s website or social media pages to be the place to go for accurate and truthful information. But not every voter has the time or inclination to look it all up. How many of us took the time to research each of the many candidates who ran for governor in the primary? Is truth in the political arena even possible given how far we’ve gone in the opposite direction? What if political advertising campaigns were held to the same standard as other commodities offered to the public?
When I was growing up, both school and family imprinted me with the responsibility and privilege that exercising my right to vote represents. If we fail to vote, to make our needs and preferences known to those making decisions in our name, then we open our country to the potential loss of something precious. Generations of our ancestors fought to gain the right, responsibility and privilege of the ballot box. Don’t let this cornerstone of our democracy crumble.
