Thursday, November 3, 2022

CAN WE VOTE AWAY OUR OWN RIGHTS?







I intend to make this short today. It won’t take long to state my concerns.


Regardless of your political persuasion chances are you have had your fill of repetitive, often offensive campaign ads. Yet we have learned to accept those irritants as a given in the democratic election process…..the price we pay for the right to choose our leaders and what they stand for.


Yet, in this era of “election deniers” we are reminded that our supposed ability to make those choices for ourselves might be in peril…..that perhaps there are those who would have our so-called leaders making the choices that affect us all …..creating an election landscape our democratic upbringing had never warned us of.


I cannot tell the future…..and don’t pretend to try. But I, like you, can do my best to understand how it may play out. With that in mind I invite you to consider the following basic fact. Does it frighten you at all? Do you see the irony of it?


IT SEEMS THAT IN A DEMOCRACY THE ELECTORATE CAN VOTE TO RESTRICT THEIR OWN DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS….THEY CAN VOTE TO HAVE SOMEONE OTHER THAN THE VOTERS THEMSELVES DECIDE ELECTIONS….ONCE WE HAVE GIVEN OUR LEADERS THE RIGHT TO DO THAT, WILL WE EVER BE ABLE TO VOTE FOR THE RETURN OF THOSE RIGHTS?


Think about that for a moment. Is that likely to happen? I don’t know. I for one do not believe that a foreign army or sinister Sino-Russian alliance will spell the end of our beloved democracy. I can, however, imagine that such a loss might be possible…….as a result of our own vote.