Tuesday's To Do List: VOTE!

I've stayed pretty quiet this election season. Frankly, I'm not so pleased with 98% of my choices for all elected offices. And my guess is that, based on polling I've seen, you're not so thrilled either.

The 2010 election season has been filled with nastiness all around. Thanks to Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 50 (2010), untold amounts of anonymous money has bought more tv time than I remember in the past, much of it lies.

Many people believe that President Obama has not lived up to the promises he made 2 years ago. I would argue that he actually has fulfilled many of his promises and that he never promised us change overnight. He never promised that the economy would magically bounce back on January 21, 2009. Health care reform isn't exactly what I wanted it to be, but we're on the right track. DADT is still in place and I don't have an answer for that. Things are getting better. Want proof? Visit the website "What the F(*^ Has Obama Done So Far?" and I think you'll be impressed. Make sure to just keep pressing the big button in the middle of the page to move onto the next page.

Life in Illinois isn't great. Governors Blagojevich and Ryan were corrupt. The state is out of money. A lot of people say the blame for that lies solely with the Democrats. Guess what? In 2002, when Governor Blagojevich took office, we were out of money. The problem is that the government in Illinois, which until Blagojevich won in 2002 had been run by Republicans since 1973, had been kicking the financial problems down the road rather than making tough decisions.

My point is that no party is 100% innocent in any of the problems - federal, state or local - and no party is 100% guilty.

But no matter how disgusted you are with the candidates and the current office holders there is only one thing you can do to make a difference: VOTE.

Don't vote for who you think is going to win. Don't vote for the guy who ran the most or the loudest tv ads or sent you the most mailers. Don't vote for a party because you've always voted for the party, just like your parents and grandparents before you. Vote for the person who shares your values. Your real values. Underneath all the hype and the nastiness, some of these candidates share your values. Sift through the rhetoric and vote.

Decisions are made by those who show up and Tuesday is the one day you get to show up. So take 5 minutes out of your day and take part in the decision making process. Because if you don't, then I really don't want to hear your whining.

"Think government isn't about you? How many of you have student loans to pay? How many of you have credit card debt? How many want clean air and clean water and civil liberties? How many want jobs? How many want kids? How many want their kids to go to good schools and walk on safe streets? Decisions are made by those who show up. You've gotta rock the vote!"

- CJ Cregg, The West Wing, "You Gotta Rock the Vote," Season 4, Episode 3 (emphasis mine)

We've Got the Candidates We Deserve

So much has been written recently about Mark Kirk, his military record, and how he apparently "misremembered it wrong" (I can barely type those words because they are so grammatically incorrect) which awards he did or didn't win and I've stayed out of the whole thing. This has been difficult for me because if you're a long-time reader of Little Merry Sunshine, you'll remember that I'm not exactly a fan of Mark Kirk's (here, here, and here, for example). Even though I've avoided this scandal, I applaud Ellen of the Tenth for the way she has relentlessly held Rep. Kirk's feet to the fire.

I can no longer stay quiet.

As I've read the articles in the Daily Herald, Chicago Tribune, and Sun-Times and the comments people have left in support of Kirk, against Kirk and also pro- and anti- Alexi Giannoulias (Mark Kirk's major opponent in the upcoming Senate race who also faces his own scandals), one thing stands out to me: We have the candidates we deserve and we have them in every single election.

How often do we all go to the polls holding our nose and pulling the lever for the "lesser of two evils" candidate? Most people I know complain a lot about how they wish we could get some better candidates. It's rare that candidates actually inspire us to be better and rarer still that we feel like they aren't bought by some deep-pocket lobbyist or another.

But don't we have responsibility for these lackluster (and often corrupt) candidates who constantly fail to live up to even minimal standards we expect of our leaders?

Less than half of all adults vote. The numbers are a bit higher during the sexy presidential elections and are truly pathetic during the "unimportant" local elections. I've got news for you: the President isn't going to do anything to get the snow plowed off your street or the potholes fixed, but your mayor's got some pull there. The local school board determines what kind of an education your child gets, not Congress. Voting takes 10 minutes, maybe, and with early voting there's simply no excuse not to vote.

Why do candidates spend so much money on tv, radio, and print advertising and do everything they can to get on the news? Because they know that most voters are too lazy to do any independent research. In the olden days (i.e., back when I turned 18 and started voting), it was tougher to do the research because the internet didn't exist. But today, we can all sit around in our pj's and vet our candidates. Doing a quick Google search of "Mark Kirk" gave me 13.9 million results in .21 seconds. Sure the tough part is going through those links and determining which ones have any validity, but you can find the answers. Oh, and if you find information that seems just a little outrageous, check it out on FactCheck.org or at Snopes.com before believing it. Most of it isn't true, especially if it comes via an email that's been forwarded 900 times.

Remember that a candidate who spends millions of dollars on tv, radio and print advertising or whose name you hear in the news constantly isn't necessarily the best candidate, they simply have a ton of money.

There are usually more than two candidates per office. In addition to the Democratic and Republican candidates, there are usually a number of lesser known 3rd party or independent candidates. Don't discount them simply because the media does and they don't have any money. If you don't know whether or not they exist, you can find the information at your county clerk's website where they'll have a complete list of all candidates in the upcoming election.

Get involved. Attend town hall meetings and debates or forums and ask questions. Write letters to the editor. Volunteer your time. Donate some money. Put out a yard sign. Host your candidate in your home and invite your friends and neighbors.

Support candidates who tell you why you should elect them rather than spending their time telling you how bad their opponent is. When we demand better, we'll get it.

Politics is nasty business because we allow it to be. Politicians lie to our faces and conduct themselves in ways that would surely get them fired instantly in the private sector because we allow them to and keep voting them into office year after year after year. Some people want to institute term limits, but I think they're unnecessary. We've already got term limits. They're called ELECTIONS.

The bottom line is this: Decisions are made by those who show up. When we show up for ourselves and demand better, we'll get better candidates. Until then, we've got the candidates we deserve.

Decisions Are Made By Those Who Show Up*

Do you know how many people in the world don't even have the option of voting or who's votes don't matter because their democracy is a total sham? I don't either, but I'm willing to bet it's far greater than the number of people who vote we the freedoms we take for granted.

We take for granted that we won't be maimed when we go vote. We don't think twice about whether the election is stolen so our votes don't matter anyway (well, after 2000, maybe we do a little, but I digress). As women, we don't consciously think about all the women throughout the world who are denied the franchise simply because they are women and that we've only had this right for a little more than 81 years. We don't worry that changing our government will erupt in violence and war.

Voting is our right. It's a privilege that we were granted in the Constitution, although some of us had to fight a bit harder than others for the right to be added to the Constitution. But it's not just a right, in my mind. Voting is a responsibility.

We owe it to the millions of people around the world who are denied the right to vote. And we owe it to future generations to have cared for our democracy by voting. The decisions made today and in the next 4 years by our government will have ripple effects for generations to come. Simply put, if you're concerned about the future for your children and grandchildren you must vote.

Decisions are made by those who show up.

*President Josiah Bartlet, The West Wing, "What Kind of Day Has It Been," Season 1, Episode 22, originally aired May 17, 2000.