{"id":3704,"date":"2008-09-12T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-12T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/the-obamapalin-effect-in-this-election\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T05:51:09","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T11:51:09","slug":"the-obamapalin-effect-in-this-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/the-obamapalin-effect-in-this-election\/","title":{"rendered":"The Obama\/Palin effect in this election"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u00a9 2008 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A real change has occurred in our presidential election. The race has become personal to Americans on both sides. Many Obama<\/a> supporters already have had a personal epiphany that they really like him, first as a person and second as a candidate. Now, with the introduction of Sarah Palin<\/a>, many Republicans have gotten into the election in the same way.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I am really happy that we have a presidential race where people will be voting because they care rather than as a \u201ccivic duty\u201d of just pulling the lever. More so, they will be voting for rather than against. It energizes our nation to be focused for rather than primarily against.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Some people might say it would be better if they were voting because of some principle of government such as the person\u2019s specific view of the legitimate role of government. Still, I will take both sides of the Obama\/Palin personally caring phenomenon and cherish it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Too many elections feature the partisans voting as they have always voted without regard to the quality of the candidate, other than that the candidate is of the \u201ccorrect\u201d party. In this way most of the votes cast were a referendum of the party rather than the nominee.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Even more obnoxious is that about 98 percent of incumbents are returned to office reflexively. Partially this is because election rules and procedures, introduced and voted on by the incumbents, provide small and large advantages to them retaining their office. I like the bumper sticker I saw that said, \u201cNever re-elect anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Now any yahoo who uses that quote to say that a single person should not be elected misses the point. Specifically, if Lee Rawson<\/a> should not be returned to the state Senate, so should all of the other Senators from our area. Otherwise, the argument does not work.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Election integrity should be a non-partisan concern<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

One thing that has changed in the last couple of elections is that there has been a strong effort by partisans to register people to vote. There are two results: I have known two people of the other party who found on Election Day that even though they registered to vote, because they were Republican and the registrar was not, their registrations were not turned in.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Second, we may have people registered to vote who do not really exist. When people who do not exist vote, it means our election procedures are a sham. We should at least require proof of existence to the level required of someone writing a check, be it several picture IDs. It is horse hockey that identifying voters somehow disenfranchises them. It is the other way around.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There was a famous saying by Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s not the people who vote that count. It\u2019s the people who count the votes.\u201d Anything hinting that the will of the people is secondary to the desires of the political bosses pushes us into a functional dictatorship. I find it very distressing that the validity of New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>\u2019s elections is a partisan argument between the Democrats and Republicans.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The validity of our electoral process should be a non-partisan concern. But partisans say with guileless eyes that there is something greater than the will of the people — their own desire for power. They say the ends justify the means in elections.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If the reason to vote is to shape the role of government in our lives, any shadiness in the expressed will of the people is especially onerous. If the party bosses decide the elections, it is a dictatorship.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Getting citizens registered to vote is a ho-hum in my book. What we have found is that when long-term non-voters are badgered into registering to vote, only a very tiny percentage actually vote. Why? They do not really care about the outcome of the election.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I have always thought that we did not need all of the folderol about registering to vote. If we go out and get each citizen to care, we will not have to worry about them registering and voting. If they care, they will vote.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Keep it positive<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Another change is that with Gov. Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket, much of the hate-mongering by Republicans has been replaced by genuine approval of Palin. The hate mongering of Obama has all but disappeared in the items sent to me. Previously, I had gotten lots of rude comments about Obama which I noted but did not believe.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the hate mongering has switched sides. I have been getting lots of rumor mongering about Sarah Palin. I wish both sides would drop the negatives and talk their own positives. Most people care about their person so it has no effect other than to divide us as a people.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I am often told that the scummy side of politics is prevalent because it works. Consider though, it cannot work if we, as a people, do not allow it to work. Attack ads and negative campaigning cannot continue if enough of us react in ways that do not reward such tactics. When good candidates decide they would rather lose than descend into that morass, we are on our way to a better place. I have said to several candidates that I am withholding financial support because they have been playing with the truth in their election advertising.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Each person should talk the positives of their candidate and vote positively. I will if you will.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Swickard<\/a> is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 2008 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. A real change has occurred in our presidential election. The race has become personal to Americans on both sides. Many Obama supporters already have had a personal epiphany that they really like him, first as a person and second as a candidate. Now, with the introduction of Sarah Palin, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swickard-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}