By Gil Beyer
Reader Contributor
None of my children want to discuss “politics.” I’ll buy that. I personally believe that a significant percentage of the individuals in office or running for office are self-serving, power-hungry individuals seeking only to enrich themselves and impose their personal agenda on others. The thing is we continue to elect these same willingly corruptible individuals. So, either we aren’t interested in having candidates who actually care about their constituents or we aren’t actively examining the candidates before casting our votes.
Most voters seem to only care about the letter after the candidate’s name. In theory, candidates represent the interests of their constituents. In practice many candidates/officeholders are following an agenda set by themselves or others. Often incumbents don’t even listen to their constituents — they bow to the directions given them by organizations like the Freedom Foundation, whose goals may diverge drastically from the wants and desires of the majority of citizens.
That leads me to the “civics” portion of this piece. Having the vote is the most powerful and important privilege given a citizen. Our Founding Fathers were normal humans, afflicted with all the normal feelings and biases we have today — maybe a few more. When they got together in Philadelphia to break away from Great Britain, they all brought to the table a lot of baggage. They fought a war from 1775 to 1783 and worked on writing a document that was fully ratified by the 13 original states in 1790: the U.S. Constitution. The first 10 amendments — the Bill of Rights — were added in 1791.
There were many compromises made, but they built a flexible framework to the best of their abilities. One of those compromises led to the Civil War, when it was decided to have both free and slave states. The resulting document, with several subsequent amendments, has overall served us well for more than 200 years.
When the Constitution was adopted, only male landowners could vote. All men 21 and older got the right to vote in federal elections, regardless of land ownership, in 1828. Freed male slaves got the vote after the Civil War. Women got the vote in 1920 with the 19th Amendment. In 1971, the 26th Amendment gave 18-year-olds the right to vote. Seems it was deemed unacceptable to ask 18-year-olds to die for their country if they couldn’t vote.
Today, far too many people seem to think that elections are a spectator sport. That’s just not true. Elections require active citizen involvement. Having the right to vote is an honor and a privilege. It is your duty as a citizen to be involved; to participate in the electoral process.
Get to know the candidates, their platforms and, at public forums, ask tough questions about what their goals are if elected. It is a given that the candidate will say what they think you want to hear. The Idaho Congressional District 1 incumbent, Russ Fulcher, is so dismissive of his constituents he won’t even bother to debate his opponents in public forums.
If this grand experiment of a constitutional republic is to continue, we must participate. All citizens deserve to be heard and represented. We must learn about the candidates and investigate their agendas and voting records. They are going to be our representatives in the city halls, county seats, state capitals and Washington, D.C. The records of incumbents must be closely examined. They must act in the best interests of the majority of their constituents.
Listen, learn, register and, most important of all, vote.
Gil Beyer is a Sandpoint resident.
