Vote for Democracy

I had several ways to write this week’s blog given the response to last weeks. I can’t remember if Kevin Ward was my client or I was his but his response made me think hard about what my response should be. I could write more facts about women’s issues but I decided to address an even more important problem facing all voters.

It seems the political parties want us to vote single issue. Republicans push crime while Democrats push abortion. If I were voting single issue, I would say vote for democracy. It seems strange that America is a place where democracy is in danger but it is. Many candidates running support moving toward authoritarianism. Just this morning, I learned that my county will now hand count ballots for this election rather than use voting machines. There is a much greater opportunity for malfeasance with hand counting than with machines as demonstrated by the multiple recounts in Maricopa County in the last election. It’s just harder to rig a vote with a machine.

Our country was designed as a democracy and it works well. One person, one vote, and the person who gets the most votes win (the electoral college is not democratic and should be done away with). By voting pro-democracy you are voting in favor of everything that makes America better whether it's voting rights, reproductive rights, or oversight of elected officials to prevent graft or other illegal actions. The stronger our democracy, the stronger our country.

We can be narrow-minded or think big and bold. We can understand that we don’t have enough skilled workers to fill available jobs and design a democratic way to fix the problem. We can implement strong land use policies that protects our shrinking water availability or enables people to get off the streets and into housing by requiring property owners to improve their properties before increasing rents. We can keep the core values of our constitution and still help people to fully understand the document and what it says rather than grabbing a 3-word soundbite that misconstrues an entire amendment.

I don’t want a governor who says, as a candidate, that she won’t accept the results of an election unless she wins. That’s not a democratic or fair election policy. I want a candidate and a party that tells me what they will deliver if they get in office, not Mitch McConnell saying “elect Republicans and we’ll tell you what we’ll do once we’re in office.” We can’t change the system, by court packing, for instance, to get the results one party wants.

There are now worries that we are headed for a civil war in this country and it won’t be clear battle lines with armies facing each other. It will be subversive and intense like January 6 or Paul Pelosi’s recent attack. We don’t want that. It’s not American. Let’s keep our light shining bright and vote for democracy this year.