I Hate To Hear People Say These Things

DISCLAIMER: I was guilty of this as well in the past!

The midterm elections are over (except for a few close-race recounts), and I hear two things all the time on social and traditional media that really bother me.

The first is “Just wait till 2020”.

True, our next elections are in 2020 but we should be voting on the issues and NOT on the candidates.

We should be supporting the candidate that represents the issues that are important to us as individuals. It shouldn’t matter if the candidate was born rich or poor, is rich or poor, a famous actor, or rock star, or a relatively unknown person.

Reasonable logic follows that if you support a candidate because they represent the issues you support, those issues don’t suddenly disappear at the conclusion of the elections – whether your candidate won or lost. Candidates have a political life-span but the issues live on.

Don’t wait till 2020 simply because that is the next opportunity you have to cast a ballot for a candidate. Use this time to get involved on a local level, with like-minded civic groups that share the issues important to you. Take this time to educate yourself on the nuance issues within a larger issue, and realize that issues spill over affecting other issues. This is the time where we as progressives need to keep our issues at the top of the conversation as much as possible and not just three weeks before the 2020 elections when we back the next candidate.

The Second is installing term limits.

This is such a cop out and a slap in the face of the idea of an active democracy. It’s no more than a lazy person’s reason NOT to vote.

As in any career there are good people that hold public office and fight for the betterment of their constituents. Of course, there are bad as well. But why should we force out the good people, via term limits, who are actually affecting positive change through sensible policies when term limits were meant to force out the bad politicians? It makes no sense to penalize the politicians who really listen and care about their constituents.

We need to end the concept and usage of term limits by getting people to vote!