Election Day thoughts 2022

Election Day. Get out and vote if you haven't done so already.

The political landscape looks far different than it did when I first reached the age to vote in 1987. Back then, generations prior, and even for roughly a decade after, our political leaders from all stripes generally worked together, or tried tirelessly to do so, for the good of the country. You could even find them often dining or drinking together in the same restaurants after a day of bitter session debates.

Those days, unfortunately, are over.

We're now a country divided in so many ways. 

My firm belief is that in the absence of social media platforms we wouldn't be where we are today; although I still believe the majority of our citizens actually care for one another - I see it firsthand - and generally exercise rational, practical reasoning when electing officials, the outsized bullhorns that social media provides fringe elements give resources to divisive politicians or wannabe fear-mongering leaders, who would have rightly been ostracized in past generations.

But the genie of social media ain't going back in the bottle. 

I don't have the answer(s) as to what will help shrink the political divide and re-strengthen our democracy, but my own belief is that until other parties are allowed to form, germinate, grow, and have a real voice in the political system, coupled with removing the addiction of big money out of political machines - two very tall orders, I understand - then we'll probably continue down this dark path for quite a while. 

But clearly, we are too big and diverse as a country for a mere two parties to have a stranglehold on power. That simply must end if our democracy survives another century in my opinion.

But here we are today.

And so, your vote - your voice -  still matters, perhaps more than it ever has. 

Make it heard. Loud and clear.

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