The midterm elections are here.
If you are like me, you have been combing through polling data, listening to commentary and running through various scenarios all in the hopes of determining who is likely to win and who is not.
Even if you are not like me, I am sure you have overheard something, caught a glimpse of the news or maybe read something — perhaps even in this ?publication.
This is a big year for ?Congress.
Many believe that power could change hands in the U.S. Senate.
If this were to happen, not only would it symbolize a sizeable victory for the Republicans, it would also leave President Obama with a Congress that opposes him for the remainder of his term.
But, if I am honest, I doubt things could get any more gridlocked.
Sometimes it seems like our elected officials have forgotten their only purpose — leadership.
I don’t see 535 leaders. I see 535 followers, but maybe that is just me.
I won’t tell you if I am a donkey or an elephant, only because I want you to keep reading, but I am extremely loyal to my party.
I passionately want to see my party win.
I believe in the candidates we have put forward, I believe they can make a difference, I believe things would be better if they are re-elected or elected.
I can even stomach a little “party propaganda.” You know what I mean, the negative adds, the smearing, the demonization.
I want to win more than ever, and it think it extremely critical that we do, but this year has been a little different for me.
Perhaps it’s maturity or frustration, but I don’t just want us to win, I want us to win for a reason.
I want us to win with purpose and for a purpose.
And as cliché as it may sound, I want that reason to be America.
We talk about foreign policy, economic policy and welfare policy, where they stand on this social issue and that fiscal issue.
But what do they believe about this nation of ours?
It sounds so simple, perhaps too simple. But that’s exactly the way it’s supposed to be.
We are an experiment that started more than 200 years ago on the outskirts of a great, vast empire.
We shouldn’t have succeeded, we shouldn’t have won, nothing was in our favor and nothing needed to be.
It was fought with guns, but it was won with ideas.
I hope we all remember that as we watch the results or walk into the ballot box.
cgerst@indiana.edu
