Opinion : Changing the way to look at politics

In just a few days, it will be over. The national nightmare that is yet another general election will be over and we can get back to a sense of normalcy in our lives. For a while. Not long, of course.

Probably not next Wednesday, but within a few days, a week at the outside, it will all start up again. Remember, the House of Representatives is all up for reelection in (by next Wednesday) less than two years. And, of course, we have a governor’s race to deal with in 2014, a U.S. Senate race, the entire Iowa House and all the county races, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum....

AND let us not forget that there will be another Presidential race in less than four years, and we have to cranked up for that. If Governor Romney wins Tuesday, we will spend the next three and a half years getting “casual” visits from Democrats who are “considering” a run for the White House in 2016. If the President wins reelection we’ll be getting those visits from both parties. And they’ll start sooner than you think. The politics you thought was over will be only be beginning.

I, for one, have had enough. Not the political process, mind you. I actually enjoy politics, but politics as we know it is not longer fun anymore. It has become a process that is negative, polarizing, contentious, and has locked our government into a constant stalemate.

Because of that, I am going to change the way I look at politics. I realize that this might be trivial idealism to many of you, but it’s a start. And it has to start somewhere.

1. I am no longer going to limit my choices to the “two-party” system.

We are a nation of choice. We have 35-flavor ice cream stores, limitless internet information, and every gets to go to the playoffs. But in the most important thing we do -- choose our leaders -- we really don’t want choice. We limit ourselves to the two major parties and ridicule the views of any other party or candidates. Why is that? Why do we have to limit ourselves that way?

I think part of is that need to belong. For many of us the views of the Libertarian, Green or even Socialist parties might better align themselves with our views. But we don’t want to look like nonconformists. We don’t want people to think we’re weird. We don’t want to “throw away” our vote.

But that is faulty logic. If we really want the political process to work and we are really involved with it, we should be looking at the views of all parties. We might be lifelong Democrats or Republicans, but we might find out we’re something else. If more people did that, we just might start to break up the gridlock. We might just have a republic again.

2. I’m done with negative politics.

At what point did we, as a population, become so gullible and ignorant that we actually are swayed by negative politics? When did we give up all touch with reality that we listen, let our eyes glaze over and begin to nod like a bobblehead to whatever garbage candidates put on our TVs? Whenever it was, we lost our souls to it. I've just as guilty as anyone else of doing it, but I pledge today that I'm done.

Being a national candidate (either President, the House or Senate) is not really that hard anymore. You don’t actually have to have any positions of your own. All you have to do is come up enough misinformation against your opponent and you have a campaign. Then, of course your opponent has to try and top you, then you top them, and so on. And neither side has the courage to stop.

It is time to say ENOUGH, America. It is time to tell candidates you want something else. You don’t care what a candidate can say against his opponent. You only care what a candidate can say about themselves. You want to know what a candidate wants to do for you as opposed to what their opponent wants to do to you. Tell us want you can do, not what your opponent can’t do.

Last week, I watched part of the Third-Party presidential debate on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0vE5CTTSFI). Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode, and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson held a 90-minute debate last week, where they laid out their positions on many of the same issues the President and Gov. Romney debated. A couple of things were interesting.

First, each candidate actually answered questions. They took on subjects like drug laws, immigration, health care, and foreign policy and answered straightforwardly and off-the-cuff. No one appeared to be using notes; they were the real deal.

Second, they did not compare their positions to each other. They talked about their positions, their views and their dreams for America. No one laughed at anyone’s position, and no one interrupted one another. It was civil and polite and positive.

Frankly, it made me sorry that I’d already voted. We owe it to ourselves and our nation to look at ALL sides and ALL views and make our choices based on what we think is best. Think of the possibilities.

3. We all need to participate.

With all of speeches, commercials, rallies, commercials, commentary and commercials we’ve been living through for the last year or so, you would think that the whole world was wrapped-up this in election. Not so much.

Despite is all, less than half of us will actually vote. Yep, probably about 49 percent of eligible voters will actually cast a ballot. We are the nation that made democracy famous, yet most of us would rather go to the dentist than the voting booth. Why?

We watch Middle Eastern countries vote for the first time. Seventy, 80, nearly 100 percent of the eligible voters in these countries brave threats of death to go to the polls to change their lives. We take that privilege for granted. 

If we are not happy with the course of America, we are the only ones who can change it. Decisions are made by those who show up. So show up already. If you don’t think you matter, you’re wrong. If you don’t think you can make a difference, you’re wrong. What was the difference in the 2000 presidential race? About 500 votes. That was the difference between Florida going to President Bush instead of Al Gore. Yep, 500 votes. Think about it.

The 2012 campaign is almost over, but the 2014 and 2016 elections are right around the corner. Are we going to have politics as usual, or are we, as a nation going to say ENOUGH? Are we going to demand more from our candidates and ourselves. Or are we just going to let the bad guys win. Because if we don’t change, that’s what we’ll get.