Final Week of the Election Season

Yeah, we're all thankful that it is the final week of the 2016 election season.
But I have to say that more than being thankful that the election season is finally coming to an end, I am thankful that we get vote for our governmental officials.

Oh, I have certainly had enough of the campaign ads, the inflated news stories, the ignorant posts on social media -- all of it. I think the presidential race has been conducted like a high school student council election where the school bully is running against the popular girl. There have been too many rude and hateful comments on Facebook and Twitter. Although I have tried to be good about that, I have failed from time to time.

I think that our system is a little bit broken.
Actually, I think the system is fine, but the people running it have forgotten the people they represent. Or maybe they have decided they represent the money rather than the voters. Both of the major parties are going to need to make some changes. I think that changes will come more easily for the Dems than for the GOP. After all, progressives are about change and conservatives are about not changing.
After the 2012 cycle, the GOP assessed their party and came up with what would be necessary to attract different voting demographics ... and then failed to follow their own recommendations!
The Dems can learn from them or they may find themselves looking at the same kind of party divide in the mid-terms or in the 2020 cycle.

I know that many people have already voted.
Missouri doesn't have early voting, but you can vote by absentee ballot. Chris has already voted by absentee ballot since she is scheduled to work on election day and is on call until 7. I'll vote early on election day and then make my way to Central Illinois to see my folks on my way to Chicago.

I hope that people in the US are thankful for our system of government and will cast their votes next Tuesday. And I encourage you to hold our representatives accountable to the people they are supposed to represent. If you have been unhappy with our Congress (that has the lowest approval rating ever), then why send the same people back to DC for another term?

Still proud to be from the USA,
John <><