My View From The Brink

By Karen Michelle Raines

[Editor's Note: Although written in November 2018, it is every bit as relevant today.]

In the role I've held since early October as a survey taker for the NC GOP, I've often been surprised by the reaction from the other side of the door to my invitation to take a 15-second, 3-4 question survey for the NC GOP. Most have politely obliged; some not so politely refused. Perhaps even more surprising is how easy it's been to be unfazed by the latter and take it all with a grain of salt. Not so, however, when it came to one incident in particular that occurred last week and has stayed with me ever since.

At issue for me was not that the woman refused to even look at me, let alone take the survey. It had more to do with what her husband (who DID take the survey) said of her: that she's refusing to vote at all, out of sheer disgust for both candidates.

It's not that I can't relate. Given the choice between Carter and Ford in 1976 I, too, smugly opted out of voting in a form of protest against both candidates - despite that year's being my first opportunity to vote and even though I knew it would mean having to bite my tongue throughout the duration of the winner's presidency because I helped put him there by not voting. (And as you might have guessed, it was a long four years.)

But what gets me about this woman's decision not to vote goes beyond mere empathy from my own would-be first election of four decades ago. As my thoughts ricocheted between flashbacks to that election of 1976 and its aftermath and this election, I soon realized what's so troubling about her decision. The words of another woman on whose steps I'd stood the week before say it best. She rightly described this election as being critical for what's at stake.

I happen to agree, as do most others with whom I've spoken. We see our country today as one teetering on the brink of a precipice. Before us lies an abyss from which we may not return for generations. The die that is cast on Tuesday will affect not just us but, as the largest protector and benefactor of other nations, the rest of the world, for years to come. Now is not the time to stand on principle and abstain from voting as a protest against some perceived personal flaw in a candidate who in all (or at least most) other respects represents one's views, when a victory for the other candidate would send the trajectory of our future careening drastically off course at the expense of our core values and beliefs.

Depending on one's age, the fallout from such inaction could conceivably last for the rest of one's life. Four years was tough enough. I shudder to think how a lifetime would feel. So should we all.

#vote, #voting, #elections