VOTING, A MORAL RIGHT AS MUCH AS A POLITICAL RIGHT

“It was very distressing to hear on "Real Time With Bill Maher" this week (the show aired on HBO on Sept 26^th, 2014) about the ignorance of the people from my Congressional District, Minnesota Congressional District 2, on the upcoming elections in November. Many of those interviewed did not know there are elections occurring in November, nor who is running for public office, and, one person didn’t even know what "Congress" is. Many Americans are appallingly ignorant about their State and American history, an ignorance sadly shared by some in public office, including a Representative from Minnesota who has chosen not to run for political office again this term. However, to be equally ignorant on American civics is shameful and downright scary. How one could even be unaware of the election in the midst of the obnoxious and offensive political ads on television is mindboggling.

Let us not be dopes about our American political process. To stay home and bellyache about the state of Congress and not exercise our right to vote the dysfunction out of Congress is lunacy and laziness. People and organizations of great wealth, including the RCCC and the DCCC, pollute our air waves with ads in the hope that we, the people, will be duped or dismayed by their half-lies and either vote their way or, better yet, not vote at all. Will we have our right to vote influenced or usurped by those who don't care about the common good of the American people?

Let us do our duty by informing ourselves on the issues and positions of our political candidates. Rather than being swayed by single issue candidates, let us search out the candidate who has the interests of the common good in mind and vote our conscience. Do your duty and vote smartly this November!”

Perhaps, never since the racist days of Jim Crow, has the inalienable rights of American citizens been so brazenly threatened by a political party, as there has been in states where the Republican Party holds a majority.  Under the ridiculous guise of voter fraud, this political party is attempting to defraud people of color and gender, women in particular, in Texas, their Constitutional right to vote.

Voting is not just a political right, it is a moral right. To deny people their moral right and obligation to vote is an immoral act whether it is supported by law or not. People of all races and religions in this country have a moral duty to vote. While I will seriously listen and consider what the leaders of my religion say, I will not base my vote on whom they support, for the hierarchy of my religion is as equally partisan as any political candidate. I have found that the single issue candidate is as egregiously fraudulent as any scam artist, and the idea of voting for someone who is a single issue candidate a canard. I voted once on a single issue  and found myself burned by that vote. I vowed never again to vote on a single issue and have not done so, since.

While I do not want to equate death with voting, though in some nations, and perhaps, some states of our own country it may be a hazardous act, voting like death is something that one can only do alone. Like the interior forum (forming one’s conscience), the voter needs to be well-informed and with that knowledge vote, not based on political polls or what the local bishop thinks, but vote on who he or she thinks is the best candidate.