Remember the real issues when you drop the ballot
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By Tony Farkas
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Next week, Monday actually, starts the biennual election process.
This being a mid-year election (based on the benchmark of a presidential election), traditionally there is a very low voter turnout.
Locally, that becomes even worse since many of the races for county-level offices were decided in the primary election back in May.
There are some elections of note, however, that have a bearing on the direction of both the state and the country, such as governor, the District 8 representative, county judges, state representatives and senators, etc., etc., etc.
I’ve covered elections for close to 40 years in several states. Part of that coverage, which I’ve pointed out in numerous columns, concern themselves with issues that bear discussion. While my tack has mostly been pointed toward liberty and limited government, I am opining on what I find important. Those things drive my vote.
As time has worn on, elections have shifted from candidates hoping to represent their districts to something akin to school prom royalty elections. Issue campaigns have been replaced with candidates buying votes with promises of federal and state gravy (“Vote for me and it’s all chocolate milk in the cafeteria all the time!”).
Legislators have taken on some sort of cult-like aura and act as if the government is not just the best solution to everything, but the only solution, and anyone not drinking that flavor of Kool-Aid is a demon. Issues no longer matter; just blind and unquestioning obedience.
Of course, many in the media have taken to parroting the party line, and whatever they say is supposed to be swallowed as truth.
All of that is to say that I really think the system is broken, or at least, in the weeds.
There is a remedy. It’s always been there. Problem is, the way the system has been broken, that remedy has been dismissed as ineffective, and because of the cult-like operation of power, along with the soothing lies passed on by officials and solons alike, it has instilled a certain apathy in the citizenry.
That remedy, of course, is the vote.
Voting is like exercise and must be done in order for the country to right itself. It’s a process that takes minutes but has an effect that lasts for years.
In all of my screeds, while I have singled out liberals and their strange amalgamation of groupthink and divide and conquer leadership, I do want to make it clear that the same brush paints many conservatives as well. It’s not just one side or the other now. The only difference, as I see it, is that conservatives have a lot of the same goals, they’ll just take longer to achieve them, while liberals are tired of waiting and want you to bend the knee right away — for your own good, of course.
What really needs to happen here is for any and all voters to not only exercise their rights, but to do research on the candidates and cast votes for the person that best fits. If there’s time, the put in some effort as well to campaign for the right candidate.
This might seem like more of the same — why bother since the game’s rigged anyway — but the mess politics are in didn’t happen overnight, and it won’t get fixed overnight. It starts with us, and with us taking our responsibility of “government of the people, by the people and for the people” seriously.
Tony Farkas is editor of the San Jacinto News-Times and the Trinity County News-Standard. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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