Barring a character flaw revelation that would destroy Senator Barrack Obama’s candidacy, he is our next President. And he will be put into office by this nations youth. Like him or not, the fact that the youth vote will take him over the top is a good thing. (How could Obama be any worse than ANY of his predecessors over the last forty years?) OpEdNews is actually a excellent barometer for the mental health of the electorate… and the OEN barometer is falling faster than the Twin Towers assisted with implosion rigging.
The foul political mindset revealed by us baby boomers is negative and destructive. We baby boomers have devolved far beyond our generation wanting to shine the light of truth and reason on the antics of our government. We are now more about revenge than restoration, more about the use of fear through the promotion of conspiracy theory than providing clarity in the darkness, and more about name calling and the use of slander, half truths, skewed data, improvable data, fabricated data as a mechanism to vent the bile from our hyper angry personalities. We have, on far too many fronts, failed ourselves and those to whom we leave this country.
But it is the youth to whom I look as a barometer of our nations future. I measure my success in life by how my family has grown into productive, involved, future oriented adults. Because of them, I will die a success. And it is the millions of other young folk just like them that will have no choice but to bring to a halt and then slowly reverse the damage left in the wake of we baby boomers.
Obama and Hillary are aggressively courting the youth vote. Good for them. It is self serving on their parts, but it will ultimately serve the greater good by engaging those just now getting ready to take the helm. But there is a rub, and it is a HUGE rub.
The integrity of the voting process has been compromised in America. The voting process has always been something that the game players fiddled with. Why not?…there are no punitive provisions in place to spank the life out of anyone that molests the vote…so there were no stop signs standing in the way of those low life’s willing to forsake each Americans sacred word, also known as, the vote.
In the face of this voting integrity crisis, grassroots organizations have risen up all across this land, striving mightily to stop the massive shift towards unverifiable voting mechanisms (mainly voting into a computer based voting machine, or , God forbid…via email or US Postal). The Help America Vote Act is a poorly thought out piece of legislation that has painted all of America into the proverbial voting dilemma corner. And with the pressure on, people have developed tunnel vision. Not all, but too many people on both sides of the argument suffer from one dimensional thinking.
Our young people, our first time voters, are in a unique position. They bring fresh eyes to the process. It is up to us older folk to help them see with eyes that are looking first and foremost for a system of voting that provides for and protects the integrity of the voting process. We old geezers need to remind or instruct them about the basics. You know, that which most of us have forgotten about.
We need to remind them that our system has as a foundational element the concept of separation of powers, and that checks and balances must be in place so that no one group or element of the government can gain a head of steam with a process that moves away from the concepts of American democracy. As it relates to voting, it means that any methodology for collecting, counting, and communicating vote totals must be transparent. And…it must be transparent to the average LITERATE English speaking registered American voter.
In the arena of voting, TRANSPARENCY is the check and balance. Keep that concept as your guiding star and the mechanics of voting become simple and obvious…meaning that transparency and computers are forever contradictory concepts.
It is the intent of the author and other members of the Pennsylvania based Coalition for Voting Integrity to take the message to college campuses as voting integrity mentors via a series of public talks. It is vital that those who have not had reason to think about the nature of voting mechanisms be educated as to just how important the mechanics of voting truly are, and how existing systems place transparency in absolute terminal jeopardy.
If the youth of America demand that their vote be meaningful, then the future of their America is a secure as can be expected given the starting point that we baby boomers have provided to this youngest voting generation.
To use a football analogy, from my vantage point, the handoff that we baby boomers are providing the youth of America is an embarrassment. The youth should learn from our mistakes. You youngsters must keep your eye on the ball and on the prize, because slight of hand is a governments bread and butter, and the prize can always be moved just out of reach.
While our efforts will be local to the Delaware Valley, it is urgent that others reach out to our young voters with the same message. Lets leave them with at least one element of our legacy that they can look back upon and be thankful. Lets help them keep their voting integrity.
Please feel welcome to contact me about how you too can become a voting integrity mentor.
Senator Obama, you owe the youth your deepest appreciation. I can only hope it comes in the form of you too demanding voting transparency.
