Americans have a funny attitude about elections. We claim the status of a democracy, but too many of us fail to exercise our right to vote.
And among those who are consistent voters, too many of us are perfectly willing to go along with attempts to suppress the votes of the folks we disagree with or inflate the votes of those we agree with. That’s not a commentary about one party or the other. Dirty tricks, fraud, gerrymandering and voter suppression have been used by Democrats, Republicans, Whigs, Federalists and Democratic-Republicans all the way back to the early days of our republic.
But as flawed as our system is, we agree with Winston Churchill, who famously observed that democracy was the worst political system, except for all the others.
And as flawed as our system is, it’s gotten us pretty far. The USA is still the leading beacon of light in a world that keeps – however slowly and painfully – getting better, safer, wealthier and more free.
So get out there and vote, if you haven’t already. It’s your right and your responsibility. And it’s the only way to keep our system as good as it can be.
