Is this the country we want to be? Is this the state we love.
I truly wonder.
We always say there is never an election more important than the one at hand. It’s become a cliché.
But, folks, there’s never been a more important election than the mid-term election this November. It may be cliché, but it’s absolutely true.
If you are eligible to vote but not registered, get registered now. Don’t keep putting it off.
In the recent Republican and Democratic primaries in Alabama, only 26 percent of registered voters cast ballots.
That means 74 percent of registered voters stayed at home. Even that isn’t a true reflection of voter apathy in Alabama. Many more people in Alabama are eligible to vote, but simply don’t bother to register. Considering eligible voters, Alabama’s turnout is likely well below 25 percent.
Imagine fewer than 25 percent of eligible voters deciding who is going to head their parties’ tickets come November. In the few primary runoffs in July, the turnout likely will be single digits.
There’s no more crucial time for eligible voters to cast their ballots than this year.
Just look at the ongoing horror on our nation’s borders with Mexico. President Trump signed an executive order this week to prevent immigrant families from being split apart, but there’s debate over whether that means a whole lot. Trump only signed the order after tear-inducing descriptions and photos showed the terrible conditions that immigrant children were being housed in. So-called “tender age shelters,” little more than internment camps or prisons for toddlers and babies, was the last straw. Even tough-man Donald Trump couldn’t stand the backlash, so after saying he didn’t have the authority to keep families from being separated, he then signed an executive order ending his own policy of separating families.
Trump folded completely, but he folded on a terrible crisis of his own making.
Trump’s disgusting immigration decisions aren’t his only horrible policies. The assault on health insurance coverage, trade wars with our closest allies, destruction of the Environmental Protection Agency – the list goes on and on.
And on.
The bigger picture, though, is that voters allowed this to happen. More precisely, eligible voters who didn’t bother to register or vote allowed this to happen.
That’s why the cliché is true: There’s never been a more important election than this November’s midterms.
We’re not voting on a president, true, but we are selecting U.S. House members. Sure, Alabama polls overwhelmingly in support of Trump, but that’s not unusual in a state where voters so often go against their own interests.
Let’s not do that this time.
There are many more Democrats than usual running for office in Alabama this year. Get to know them. Learn what they stand for.
There are good Republicans, too, especially in local races.
On the statewide level, not so much, though, especially when compared to their Democratic Party opponents.
At the top, Tuscaloosa Mayor and Democrat Walt Maddox is eminently more qualified than Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, who supported a child molester for the U.S. Senate simply because he was a Republican, and who has refused to debate her opponents.
Go down the list. Remember that the party in charge in Alabama (and in Congress) is a party that wants to keep voter turnout as low as possible. It’s the only way they stay in control.
But to vote, you must be registered. And if you’re registered, you must travel to a polling place to cast your ballot.
Never, ever vote straight ticket. Vote a smart ticket.
Especially this year.
Because there’s never been a more important election.
Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner, writes a column every week for Alabama Political Reporter. Email: jkennedy@alreporter.com.
