Between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. tonight, voters in my state will help decide the direction of the nation for a minimum of the next four years. There are a wealth of positions, candidates and issues before me on today’s ballot, but I’m afraid my attention remains locked into the Presidential race.
That position, despite the fact that the Congress really has more power to actually accomplish its goals, is more than the figurehead of the nation. It will reflect the philosophical direction of America. Despite what the polls, pundits and so-called experts say, I believe it’s still a horse race.
For that reason, I’m hoping everyone reading my unimportant thoughts this morning will grasp a simple truth that can make a huge difference: every one of us must head head to the polls today. We all need to work to make certain as many people as possible also get out and vote. That work should include whatever we can do to get them to the polls. Offer rides. Cajole. Hector. Call it what you want, but get the people you care about to the polls today.
There are plenty of reasons.
Should anti-gun groups win a majority of support in the House and Senate, new regulations - tough ones- may certainly be on the way.
Campaign promises (fortunately, not always binding verbal agreements) have promised rapid action on a new - and loophole-free - assault weapons ban. We know the term is fallacious, but “assault weapon” is an anti-gun buzzword that motivates the masses.
Another potential victim of that anti-firearm sentiment might include the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act along with new anti-firearms regulations.
But there are other reasons to be concerned.
“Consider,” says Steve Sanetti, President of the National Shooting sports Foundation, “that the next president could nominate as many as three Supreme Court justices, will appoint the next director of the ATF and will either support or resist U.N. gun-control efforts. Make no mistake, this is not the time for gun owners to take a back seat.”
That’s not an exaggeration.
The next president will have the opportunity to leave indelible marks on our nation.
Each of us must vote in order to send a message to Washington, New York, and any other location where the viewpoint of the common man is of little, if any, consequence.
Today, “average citizens” of the United States -if we stick together - can say we are sick and tired of being force fed positions that load heavier burdens on working individuals and reward slackers.
Even if we don’t win every position in every race, we can send that “clear, high signal” so often referred to by behavioral scientists. A signal that we are not so polarized; conservatively, nor liberally, as we have constantly been portrayed.
Sometime between the opening of the polls this morning and their closing this evening, every one of us must exercise one of those rights that our predecessors died to “preserve, protect and defend, from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
To have that right and fail to exercise it for anything other than a catastrophic reason, is to vote- tacitly- with those people who believe “average” Americans are too-stupid, too-lazy, or simply too-self-absorbed to be trusted to govern.
Don’t prove those people right.
We - the people - need you to VOTE.
If you don’t, you have no right to complain about the outcome.
–Jim Shepherd
