All politics are local is both cliché and absolutely true. This week, cialis voters went to the polls and voted in a mid-term election that was as important as any election would be in a year when we are voting for the President of the United States. And yet, there is always less participation and attention paid to mid-term elections, because of the lack of a national platform. Most people do not engage in the “off year” elections as actively as they do in the presidential election year. It is unfortunate, because every election is an important one. We elect the people who will represent us at the seat of power in our states and in our nation. We vote on referendums, propositions, and strategic agendas that ultimately change laws, upset the balance of power within legislative bodies, both locally and nationally, and effect policy. This is the quandary in which we find ourselves. Active engagement in the political process is the responsibility and right of every citizen and the stakes are incredibly high. There are rights that we have fought for and won that have been actively eroded in very insidious ways by the legislative bodies, individual policy wars, and the obstruction of progressive leadership in Washington.
The politics of race, gender, and class continue to keep equality, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness an allusive quest for a major part of the national electorate. What does this mean? Although we have laws in place that guarantee our citizens the right to vote, there are political agendas being pushed through numerous voter ID laws being proposed and implemented across the nation that actually hinder the voting process and STOP people from engaging in that basic right of citizenship. Women STILL do not receive equal pay for equal work nationwide, and the hard fought and protracted struggle for a woman’s constitutional right to choose to have a safe and legal abortion has been under active assault for decades. In recent years, access to legal and safe contraception as a part of women’s health initiatives has been slipping from our grasp all over the country. The Supreme Court of the land has suddenly awarded corporations the rights of personhood while the Voting Rights Act has been gutted. The Court is now allowing states with historic racial and aggressive discriminatory policy and practice to be released from any federal accountability where the constitutional right to vote is concerned.
Elections do matter, and your participation in every election has long-term consequences. The balance of power in the Congress will determine the tenor and tone of the Supreme Court for the next decade and beyond. Those we send to represent us at the table determine the laws that are made and passed, policy and practice that is addressed, and the CHANGE we so desperately need to implement. In the end, these political representatives of the PEOPLE will be responsible for the focus, priority, and efficacy of that CHANGE. And, therefore, the lack of participation in the political process is dangerous to our very survival as an inclusive and equitable nation. The right to VOTE is a privilege for which others have shed blood, sweat, and tears to obtain. Your participation in the political process is NOT negotiable if WE are to make this nation a nation that lives out the truth of its creed with justice and liberty for ALL.
Dr.T
Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Ph.D.
Founder and Artistic Director
The Conciliation Project and
Associate Professor
Virginia Commonwealth University
DrT@Margins2theCenter.com
www.theconciliationproject.org
Up Next Week: Postmortem: What happened?
