COMPLAINERS & ACTIVISTS
Americans can always find reasons to complain
“Politicians never do what they said they would do, once they are elected.”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone say this, or something similar. I’ve even been tempted to lament similarly, yet what do we expect? Sure, people are prone to over-promise and under-deliver.
Does this mean that we should give them a pass, or does it motivate us? Does the fact that so many lack inspiration, or integrity, or motivation excuse us from our duties?
I don’t believe that it does. I believe that our duty is determined by the commandments of God and the US Constitution. I believe that our Government is corrupted because too many of its citizens are either corrupt or apathetic.
Let me explain what I mean. How many of the Americans that complain about this, or that dereliction of duty by our government voted in the last election? How about the election before that?
How many of these non-voters would say that their vote doesn’t matter? How many of them have little idea what is on the ballot? Yet, they defiantly, and compassionately maintain that so many civic and political problems are someone else’s fault.
I say that to a great extent, it is their fault.
According to the census bureau, “Voter turnout for the 2022 U.S. congressional elections was the second highest for a nonpresidential election year since 2000, with 52.2% of the citizen voting-age population participating. And registration rates were the highest for a midterm election since 2000, with 69.1% of the citizen voting-age population registered to vote, up 2.2 percentage points from 66.9% in 2018, according to Current Population Survey (CPS) data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.”
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023/2022-voting-registration.html
According to these statistics, only 52.2 % of voting-age citizens chose to exercise their right to vote. I would expect that many of those who chose not to vote have complained about the outcome of the election, or policies resulting from those outcomes.
In the Song “Free Will,” by the Canadian rock band Rush, it is sung,
“If you choose not to decide You still have made a choice.”
If we decide not to avail ourselves of the right and privilege to partake in the government of the people, by the people, it is we who have chosen to allow someone else to make the choices that we in turn will likely complain about.
It may, or may not be profitable for faithful voters to complain about the rules that we are forced to live by, but I believe it is utterly irresponsible for non-voters to complain.
While I don’t believe that voting is the extent of our civic duty, I do believe that failure to vote is in large part, the reason that Marxism has attained the devastating level of success that it has in America.
“Duty is ours, results are God’s” John Quincy Adams
God bless you, Dave