Get Out And Vote, But Remember, Our Work Is Just Beginning
A maddening election season culminates today in the silence of the voting booth.聽But we can’t turn away after that.
Everywhere we turn these past few days, we hear the same weary refrain. 鈥淚鈥檓 so glad it鈥檚 almost over,鈥 people say. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 wait ’til Wednesday!鈥
Well, maybe. There鈥檚 no doubt that the past 23 months (hard to believe, but Jeb Bush started all this with a Facebook announcement in December 2014 that he was 鈥渁ctively exploring鈥 a presidential run) have been a grind.
From Donald Trump opening his campaign last year with slurs on Mexican-Americans to WikiLeaks鈥 drip-drip-drip release of stolen email at the expense of Hillary Clinton, it was frequently ugly, sometimes outrageous and more often than we鈥檇 care to remember, simply shocking.
The harsh and unprecedented tenor of the campaign has been accompanied by a dramatic rise in the level of incivility among voters. Video footage at candidate rallies 鈥斅爓ell, one candidate鈥檚 rallies in particular 鈥斅爋ften featured coarse, profane language, symbols of hatred toward other Americans and the like.
That behavior was even more widespread on social media, where cowardly trolls find easy refuge behind self-aggrandizing names and avatars. We saw too many vicious fights break out on Facebook and comment walls, too many biting, personal slurs hurled on Twitter and more than a few people driven off social media entirely by the toxic atmosphere.
This exhausting election season isn鈥檛 something any of us can afford to just speed away from, shaking our head at the smoldering wreckage in the rear view.
None of those platforms, none of that language and none of those underlying attitudes, by the way, go away Wednesday morning. No matter who wins the White House or who is elected to any of the many other offices we鈥檒l see today on our ballots, we still must find a way to live with one another.
And if we truly care about many of the issues that drove passions so feverishly high in this election season 鈥斅爋ur economy, national security, jobs, health care, immigration reform and more 鈥斅爐hen finding a way to live with one another is only a rudimentary first step. We must find common ground and learn how to join hands in work toward the common good.
Seen in that context, this exhausting election season isn鈥檛 something any of us can afford to just speed away from, shaking our head at the smoldering wreckage in the rear view. No, we all have important work to do 鈥 here in Hawaii as much as anywhere else in this country.
But that鈥檚 the intriguing promise of a participatory democracy, isn鈥檛 it? The idea that we argue like hell for months on end 鈥 in no small part, because we have the freedom to do so 鈥斅燼nd then have the opportunity to come together after the election, to make our government and our beloved country work.
If you haven鈥檛 taken advantage of absentee or early voting, get out there and cast your ballot today. From the presidential election to a mayor鈥檚 race and 20 charter amendments in Honolulu, a lot deserves your attention on this most special of days in our imperfect union, the work in progress that is the United States of America.
There is nothing else on your schedule more deserving of your time, no duty that merits any more of your attention than today鈥檚 democratic obligation.
Vote.
