{"id":3119,"date":"2010-11-02T09:39:38","date_gmt":"2010-11-02T13:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=3119"},"modified":"2010-11-02T12:41:51","modified_gmt":"2010-11-02T16:41:51","slug":"we-few-we-happy-few-voters-that-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/11\/02\/we-few-we-happy-few-voters-that-is\/","title":{"rendered":"We few, we happy few (voters, that is)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s the one truth about this day that no one can dispute:\u00a0 We voters are the Great American Minority.<\/p>\n

That’s right.\u00a0 No matter how far apart we are on the issues, on the future of the country, on Barack Obama vs. Sarah Palin, we share one abiding faith.<\/p>\n

The ballot box matters.\u00a0 Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our society, the principle upon which all else stands.<\/p>\n

Is the election system perfect?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 We are rattled by the weird new electronic machines, and dismayed by the tsunami of anonymous cash.<\/p>\n

We hold our noses at the negative TV ads and the often idiotic tone of the campaign.<\/p>\n

Do elections always produce the “best” results?\u00a0 Of course not. A lot of people with very interesting ideas are marginalized, or excluded completely.<\/p>\n

This is a human, and therefore profoundly flawed, system.<\/p>\n

I know some people who won’t vote because the process isn’t perfect.\u00a0 I know plenty of others who are profoundly apathetic, cozy in their armchair nihilism.<\/p>\n

Or they’re too busy with their games and their distractions.\u00a0 If history holds true, fewer than half of us who have the right to vote will do our duty.<\/p>\n

Fie on them, I say.\u00a0 If you want utopias, you picked the wrong planet, and you were unappily born into the wrong species.<\/p>\n

Sadly, there are others in this economic time who are too hard-pressed, too distracted by the struggles of survival to pay much attention to the election.<\/p>\n

Fair enough.\u00a0 Join us next time, friends, when times, hopefully, will be better.<\/p>\n

Today, though, I celebrate those who can and will go to the polls, and I do so with a bastardization of the bard:<\/p>\n

\n
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers and sisters\n<\/dd>\n
For those to-day that cast their votes with me<\/dd>\n
Shall be my brother and sister; be they ne’er so vile,<\/dd>\n
This day shall gentle their condition:<\/dd>\n
And those in America now a-bed or watching TV<\/dd>\n
or griping that all politicians are undeserving bums\n<\/dd>\n
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,<\/dd>\n
And hold their patriotism cheap whiles any speaks<\/dd>\n
That voted with us upon this 2010 Midterm.” <\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s the one truth about this day that no one can dispute:\u00a0 We voters are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[886],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3120,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions\/3120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}