If we see the election in terms of winners and losers, we miss the point of how a representative democracy is designed to work.
Elected “winners” become responsible for representing all their constituents, not just those who voted for them.
Ideologies, hardened by election rhetoric, must be softened in order to reach common ground.
Without compromise, there is little hope of achieving viable solutions to address national ills.
All too often, this process is exercised to construct the narrowest of supportive margins despite the large disenfranchised minority produced.
But as the legislative “sausage-making” proceeds, our roles as America’s citizens cannot stop with sealing and submitting our vote.
Voting should not be viewed as a means to set politics aside until the next election.
The more divided our nation, the more everyone must make the effort to leave their tribal islands, seek to find the good in our opponent’s positions and be willing to listen to what may be the weaknesses of our positions.
Ideological isolation is the enemy of a representative democracy and breeds the type of sectarian strife plaguing the world.
Our Constitution guarantees neither a sound government nor a strong country; it only allows it.
Our actions determine our nation’s soundness and strength, or whether we sink into a similar abyss.
If we are only able to see each other in shades of red and blue, we reject the honest intentions of our neighbors, harm the inspired form of self-government given to us by our Founding Fathers and fail to truly see the mixture of cultures, skills and ideas that lie at the heart of our resilient strength.
Robert Bindschadler,
Quilcene