Democracy Matters

Our country was founded on the principles of a Representative Democracy where the citizens eligible to vote would get together from time to time to elect the Representatives who would then go to a certain place to from a congress and conduct the business of the government for the people. The framers wrote into our Constitution certain provisions designed to protect certain rights reserved to the people and certain rights reserved to the states ALL of which was designed to restrict and limit the ruling power, authority and ability of the Federal Government. This was and remains a grand idea which was designed to prevent an authoritarian type of government which was the primary type of government existing during the time that our government was formed in the late 1700’s. This type of government was called DEMOCRACY and relied on an INFORMED ELECTORATE to vote for their INDIVIDUAL VESTED interests thereby providing the final balance between the people and the rulers.

The Democratic system ONLY works well when the majority of the eligible voters are informed voters  and participate in the elections.  Today, in our country, it can be easily demonstrated that only about 25% to 28% of the eligible electorate participates in elections. These numbers can erode to less than a 12% participation in mid-term and local elections. The problem here is that the candidates and incumbents who seek public office understand only too well that only those who vote consistently really matter. Certain groups, mainly the poor, uneducated, homeless, old and infirm and certain ethnicities, simply don’t count in an office seeker or incumbent’s political estimations and programs because they notoriously DO NOT VOTE. The evidence of this can be easily seen in the new laws which have popped up in red states such as North Carolina with its voter suppression laws and Wisconsin and Michigan with their anti union and anti healthcare laws. California has even been hoodwinked into an “Open Primary” system designed to favor the moneyed candidates on the right wing.

Please don’t kid yourself, MONEY COUNTS and The Golden Rule is: he who has the gold makes the rules. The wealthy few are calling the tune these days and the right wing, tea party republican politicians are dancing to that tune.

Yet, it is still the law in our land that there is one vote per one person but IF YOU DON’T VOTE YOU DON’T COUNT is the reality of our political process. This is why our current situation in Clovis exists as it does.

The Clovis Democratic Club is dedicated to educating eligible voters in our service area and motivating them to GO TO THE POLLS AND VOTE on Election Day. To do this consistently and effectively we need to train ourselves and work to educate the voters on the issues.