By the time the next print edition of The Washington Informer hits the streets, America will have elected a new president. Already, boards of elections across the country have reported record numbers of early voters. And they predict that numbers will eclipse previous totals on Election Day (Nov. 8).
It’s important to keep in mind that while the spotlight remains on the race for president, voters face other choices besides who will be the next inhabitant at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue. Hot-button issues down the ballot, depending on the state in which one lives, include a variety of initiatives like the raising of the minimum wage, the restriction of gun purchases, the allowance of assistance suicide for those who are terminally ill and the reinstatement of the death penalty.
That’s why every eligible voter must make sure they let their voice be heard.
However, even after the election results have been confirmed, we fear that there will be other potential problems that we must keep on the radar. Already Republican leaders like Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Rep. James Chaffetz (R-Utah) have suggested that if Hillary Clinton wins, there will be an another collective GOP effort to stall things within the executive branch.
We cannot allow that to happen. Not when we still have one vacancy on the Supreme Court and potentially one or two more within the next four years because of the advanced age of several current justices.
Americans have said we don’t want more of this ridiculous behavior from our elected officials. We’re sick and tired of it. We’ve seen the results of a Republican-led Congress that blocked President Obama at every chance, including voting more than 60 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, delaying funding for medical care and research related to the Zika virus and the excessive and fruitless investigations of the Benghazi scandal.
If members of Congress, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, chose to continue more dysfunctional behavior simply because their candidate did not win, we need to send them a memo: start looking for another job.
In many regards, our nation is at the crossroads. And the crises we face are not partisan-related. Somehow we must learn how to work together or we will most assuredly sink – and we won’t sink alone. No, the entire ship known as the United States of America could find itself going down the drain because of our refusal to put aside so-called party differences in order to work for the common good.
Here’s a novel idea: let’s make the members of Congress work for us for a change.