It's Our Own Damned Fault

 Once upon a time, it was a matter of civic duty and personal pride to participate in the right to vote.  People were politically aware, politically active, and most importantly, educated in how our republic works.  Over the last century, things changed.  People became more inwardly focused and selfish.  They became less tolerant of difference and dissent.  This had the two-pronged outcome of disenfranchising the majority of America, and the other half became entrenched in partisan bickering.

Our electoral system exacerbates the situation.  By and large, only Republicans can select a Republican candidate, and only Democrats can select a Democratic candidate.  The natural outcome of this is that in order to be elected to office, a candidate needs to play to the most rabidly loyal to the party platform in order to be selected as the party candidate, and then, they need to moderate their tone to appeal to the masses.  But even that has changed over time, because moderates continue to become disillusioned with the process, eventually dropping out and leaving only the most partisan to vote for their candidate.  This has resulted in an entrenched group of legislators who refuse to compromise, for fear of being voted out of office.  Since most judges are selected and confirmed by partisan politicians, our courts are becoming partisan as well.

The silliest thing is that it's all our fault.  There are more than two political parties, but collectively, we want to back a winner, and we believe that it's less offensive to select the lesser of two evils, rather than voting for the best candidate.  We have collectively bought into the lie that following your conscience results in a "wasted vote."  Bullshit!  Politicians who lose an election when a third party candidate is involved invariably say that the third party candidate "stole" votes from them. This would indicate that the vote was theirs in the first place, and that's flat out wrong.

Think of your vote as a piece of candy.  You may choose to give this piece of candy to anyone you choose.  This, of course, means that you have the choice to not give the candy to anyone.  The politicians conveniently dismiss this, however, instead choosing to blame their loss on those who gave the candy to someone other than them.  What a selfish, egocentric perspective.

We are the ones who buy into the lie that only two choices exist.  We are the ones who select the most partisan candidates.  We are the ones who punish elected officials who cross party lines.  We are the ones who throw up our hands in disgust and give up when we reap the consequences of our actions.  In other words, it's our own damned fault.