Election day, Tuesday, Nov. 4, is less than a week away and like all major elections, our votes count. In the 1990s, I had the opportunity to do some consulting work for the U.S. Agency for International Development on what was called Democracy Building Projects in countries that were coming out of dictatorships, such as Romania, Bulgaria and Uganda, for example. It was a total joy to work with people who were getting their first chance to vote in a real election. Their enthusiasm was truly inspiring. They certainly didn’t take their voting rights for granted.
In the U.S., you often hear people say that they rarely vote because their vote doesn’t matter or that the candidates are all the same. I have to respectfully disagree. Elections can sometimes come down to a few dozen votes and each vote is important. And candidates are very different people. Imagine how different our lives would be now if Al Gore had won the presidency in 2000 or if John McCain or Mitt Romney had won in 2008 or 2012. If Gore would have won in 2000, for example, we would have responded to 9/11 by going after the people and groups responsible for the attack, rather that attack Iraq, which had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. Thousands of innocent people in Iraq and thousands of U.S. military heroes would be alive today. So yes, elections matter and most elections become life-and-death matters for some populations.
In addition, elections matter to your everyday life. No matter how self-reliant you may be, your life is heavily affected by the government. You use the roads, get your garbage picked up, received a public education or your doctor or your child’s teacher received a public education, rely on law enforcement, assume that your food is safe to eat and your tap water is safe to drink and that the air is clean. That means that decision makers at all levels of government have a huge impact on your daily life and, perhaps, the direction of your future.
But elected officials and their appointees shouldn’t have the ultimate say in these decisions. You, the voter, should be the final decision maker by hiring and firing your representatives when you cast your ballot.
|
|
The Shepherd’s editorial staff is urging Shepherd readers to cast ballots in the Nov. 4 election. We spend a lot of time and money trying to provide you with factual articles that you won’t read in much of the mainstream media. We want you, the public, well informed when you cast your votes. You may, at times, not like some of the things you read in the Shepherd, but they are factually accurate. No one can argue that we are not factually accurate and correct. We devote a lot of resources to fact checking. We want Shepherd readers to get accurate information—not biased or made-up issues promoted by shadowy special interest groups—so you can responsibly choose your elected officials.
We would hope that Shepherd readers weigh in on policy issues highlighted in the referendum questions on how we’re going to fund our infrastructure, provide health care to low-income Wisconsinites, keep elections free of corporate interference and ensure that workers are paid fair wages. We want Shepherd readers to make these decisions to make our democracy stronger and truly representative of the will of the people.
The Shepherd, in consultation with a group of highly knowledgeable political observers and civic leaders, has endorsed candidates in specific offices that are on the Nov. 4 ballot. This in stark contrast to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which decided a few years ago that they weren’t going to explicitly endorse candidates anymore, but rather implicitly state their preferences within their news articles and editorials. They are afraid to point out unpopular things about certain candidates for fear of alienating some advertisers. I think that’s unfortunate. Our country’s newspapers have a long and proud tradition of endorsing honorable candidates, providing readers with some sort of guidance in elections and not worrying about alienating any particular advertisers. Readers can choose to vote accordingly or not, but at least they will be able to make a little more of an informed decision. The Shepherd is asking our readers to consider our endorsements on these pages and then vote your conscience on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Our democracy needs you.
—Louis Fortis
Editor and Publisher
The Shepherd Express
