Consider your vote's impact

The election is upon us.

Colored election signs dot front yards (sometimes fences make good neighbors), the newspapers are flush with election advertising and the familiar faces of candidates are seen about town at community meetings.

Elections of late tend to be extremely polarizing. It’s an us-against-them mentality. Republican versus Democrat. Why?

Last time I checked, we’re all Americans. Each of us loves this nation and the things it stands for: Freedom of speech, press, assembly, petition and religion. Separation of church and state. The right to bear arms.

But there’s something we don’t have a right to: Telling lies.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a four-term U.S. Senator, ambassador and academic said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

A disturbing trend on the American political scene is fabrication thrown about willy-nilly. Neither party is innocent. There is no such thing as ‘death panels.’ There is no reason Congress should pass a health care bill that the representatives themselves do not have to adhere to.

Equally upsetting are the talk-show pundits who seem bent on breeding fear and resentment all in the name of ratings.

Half-truths and statements taken out of context are warped and then passed along telephone-style until people are up in arms about something that’s just not true.

It’s no wonder American elections have such low voter turnout. Who knows what to believe? Who wants to wade into the muckraking? It would seem having an opinion means tarnishing oneself.

So, getting to the point, I urge voters to research the facts for yourself.

But here’s the tricky part: You’ve got to think outside your own opinions to do that.

Are you a Republican? Read “liberal” news sources. Are you a Democrat? Watch “conservative” TV. The truth lies somewhere in the middle of what each side is saying.

Before you vote Tuesday, take time to consider each issue. Read the candidate profiles in this newspaper. Read the voter information pamphlet mailed out by Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch.

I urge voters to truly consider the impact of their vote. Don’t vote for someone just because you always have. Do you know what that person stands for? Is that person going to get things done in the legislature or just piddle the time away?

In a guest column last week, former U.S. Representative Pat Williams wrote, “How is it that now, all these years and millions of campaign dollars later, we do not know our elected officials, nor they us, as we seemed to back then?”

Ask questions and demand answers. It’s time to hold our politicians to a higher standard. It’s time that we require our politicians to work together across party lines. Blocking good legislation just because it’s what the political party is doing is detrimental to everyone.

Jump off the band wagon and do your research.