Letter: Be careful who you vote for

We are on the cusp of the American political season where the political hard right is drawing a bead on the great center of American life.

The many elections on the local, state and federal levels are all demanding attention and trust. We need trust. When we buy a can of tomato soup, we trust that there will be tomato soup inside the can. We must be more discerning as we consider how to cast a vote.

Political consultants twist things so that we vote “yes,” but the impact is really a “no.” It is an old axiom that if you tell me who your friends are, I will tell you who you are – a maxim worth considering before casting a ballot.

Ambition is a harsh master. It turns many office seekers into cynical actors whose principles and high-minded goals become secondary (or further back in the meandering line of compromises) and are abandoned to the single-most objective of simply keeping the office, perks and the roar of the crowd.

There’s a political story about a candidate who told the audience that he was running to do the most good for the most people. When asked in private what the greatest number of people was, he said “number one.” That cynicism seems to have ceased to be humorous as we see more and more elected officials seeking good laws for their financial backers, taking private island jet rides and stock trading on inside information. It is a part of the universe where betrayal of a spouse to whom a vow was once taken is commonplace, and vows to protect the Constitution are words vaporized within seconds of uttering them.

Why should it be news, let alone surprising news, to hear a candidate support reasonable restrictions on gun sales, or that billionaires should pay taxes commensurate with the clerks who put stamps on the checks mailed to their favorite Congressman who fights to protect their ballooning wealth? Do we really need to have people in office who deny that elections can be won fairly? Should people be in office if they do more to protect the right to slaughter people with military grade weapons than to protect children in schools from such assaults?

I do believe that this state and country benefit from having two viable parties in governance. I don’t think that a locked-step opposition to the “other” is any better than the goose-stepping we have in each place where single-party rule leads inevitably to the elimination of freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Yet, hate draws money, as we saw in the hate mongering Alex Jones’ financial disclosure; lies always find followers and followers vote. People seeking a government that can do what governments are supposed to do with the consent of the governed, do so by law and have justice without favoritism.

We do have people on the ballot who meet my diminishing hope to a future as good as our past. A past and future which was not and will not be perfect, but good people in office from school boards to national office can drive us to that better future.

Edward Marth

St. Charles