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We are less than three weeks away from the 2026 election. Are you ready? Some folks have already begun to vote via mail-in ballots, or early in-person voting. The key question isn't how you will vote, but if you will vote?
In our form of Government, some call a democracy, others call it a Republic, they are both right. It's a democracy because the ultimate power rests with the people. It's a republic because we are governed by representatives we elect. Bottom line is we are a Democratic Republic and as our Constitution reminds us, "We The People" have the power in this country.
How are we doing? Not well, as polls tell us the President we elected only has a 35 percent approval rating. The Democrat Party approval rating is only 40 percent and the Republicans Party is at 39 percent, and Congress as a whole is only at 15 percent! Obviously, the majority of Americans disapprove of all four, and we elected them! We need to do better, a lot better.
The question is how? We have all heard that doing the same thing over and over again is the definition of insanity, which seems to be appropriate for what we have been doing for the last 25 years. So, here's another question; Is it us (the voters) or is it them (those we elect)? And, another question; What can we do about it?
The first thing is to vote. No excuses, like I don't have time or my vote doesn't matter or they will do what they want anyway. Your vote does matter. It is the single most important thing we can do if we want a government that serves us. It is our power and with great power comes great responsibility and we need to use it wisely.
Since the majority of us are not satisfied with our current government and our representatives that we hired are not doing the work we hired them to do, why then do we constantly reelect 90 percent of those asking us for reelection and think things will change. After the election, it's clear they forget who they work for.
If you have been living in a cave, then you may not have noticed they aren't working for us. They are working for their party and here is where it gets messy. Our right to vote is clearly granted to us in the Constitution and most (not enough) of us live up to our civic responsibility to vote. Political parties are not even mentioned in our Constitution, yet somehow we have allowed them immense power when they are actually nothing but a poltical club.
The parties control who can vote in primary elections. They make it difficult for Independent voters to vote in primaries and make it even harder to get Independent candidates on the ballot. The Parties are constantly gerrymandering congressional districts to help them stay in power, and the party leaders then force our representatives to vote party line on bills or face retribution from their own party.
So, to answer practically all the questions I asked in this column, the problem is clearly the two major parties, which are exactly what many of our Founders, including George Washington warned us about, saying parties would place the people's power in the hands of party leaders. We should have listened.
Who do the parties work for? Americans by the thousands have figured it out its not us, and are switching their affiliation from Democrat and Republican to Independent. National polls say 45 percent now identify as Independent voters while only 27 percent each identify as Democrat or Republican. And according to Newsweek, this year 217 Independent candidates are running for U.S. House and Senate seats, yet still the major two parties ignore this growing Independent Movement. Why? Because they have successfully built and electoral system to keep them in power.
I want to remind the two-party clubs that this country doesn't belong to them. It belongs to us. We have the power and we have the votes to make changes, and by all apparent indications, it's time to make those changes.
I won’t tell you how to vote. That right belongs to you. But if you are looking for a party to fix the system, it won't happen. They like it the way it is and will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way. They treat our nation's Capital like a playground where they play childish games like Kick-The Can, which is a combination of Hide-And-Seek, Tag, and Capture the Flag. Now, the people are saying enough childish political party games. It's time we take charge.
So please vote. Use your vote wisely. Consider the candidate not simply the party. Do something different this year or expect more of the same, the same division, the endless political party warfare, the same high prices, the same inflation, the government shutdowns, the increasing national debt, and the constant name-calling and finger-pointing that most of us gave up in the third grade.
We are better than that. We deserve better than that. We basically want all want the same things from our government and the two parties are not giving us that. Time for a change. Time to send some incumbents home by taking our back our power as American citizens and elect candidates that put people and country over party. And as always, I want to hear your point of view too, at gregawtry@awtry.com.