Weekly Opinion/Editorial

by Steve Fair

Tuesday is Election Day. While the results of the midterm elections are not known yet, pundits are predicting a great night for the GOP, but on Wednesday the governing and the ‘accountability’ begins.
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As General Douglas McArthur said, “No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.” The responsibility of being a citizen in this country and state requires vigilance. We must work to insure those elected yesterday are held accountable. Lots of promises and pledges were made during the campaign cycle. Most of the time, those guarantees and oaths are forgotten by elected officials as soon as the votes are counted. That’s because the citizenry at large fail to pay attention and hold them accountable by staying informed. Most people in the US mistakenly believe their only responsibility in the political process is to vote.
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But as James Bovard says, “Voting is no substitute for the eternal vigilance that every friend of freedom must demonstrate towards government. If our freedom is to survive, Americans must become far better informed on a day to day basis.” Thomas Jefferson said, "No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity."
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Staying informed requires personal sacrifice. Instead of just listening to Fox News, it requires citizens to actually do personal research on what their elected officials are really doing. It may require voters to attend meetings on nights that are inconvenient or give up some of their recreational time to stay informed. Bottom line; If American citizens stayed consistently informed, the political progress in American would be dramatically reformed, taking power away from political donors and campaign consultants giving it back to the citizens.
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Currently, on the average, it costs upwards of over one million dollars to run for a U.S. House seat. Just twenty years ago, the amount was half that. It costs over two hundred thousand dollars to run for the Oklahoma State Senate. With that much money required to run for office, candidates have three choices. They can fund a campaign themselves, which would allow only the rich to seek elective office. They can appeal to a broad small donor base, which requires a lot of time and work or they can appeal to a small number of big donors who often want more than just good government from their ‘investment.’ If the public as a whole ‘stayed informed,’ campaigns would require less money. Most of the expensive advertising would be unnecessary because the ‘informed’ electorate wouldn’t need to be educated on the candidate’s position.
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When candidates buy TV, radio, print, direct mail, to ‘inform’ the public on their positions, the message is designed to get votes, not inform. Often the real positions of the candidates don’t square with what they really believe. Inconsistency and hypocrisy are staples on the campaign trail and unfortunately the citizenry have come to expect it. What the general public fails to recognize is by not ‘staying informed,’ they have created the current political process they claim is so corrupt.
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Paying attention to what is happening in your government for ninety (90) days every other year just before an election isn’t vigilance. Voting every time the polls are open is not in and of itself vigilance. Being a faithful Party worker or campaign volunteer doesn’t necessarily make you vigilant. Being vigilant requires you remain watchful and alert. It means you are on the alert for danger and pitfalls on what your government may be doing or not doing. Vigilance requires commitment and sacrifice. Staying informed is a critical component of vigilance.
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As Wayne LaPierre of the NRA says, “Freedom is never an achieved state; like electricity, we’ve got to keep generating it or the lights go out.” The elections are over- now the work begins for not just those who will be elected Tuesday, but also for the vigilant.