Author: liz
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Bull Riding and Voting
By Louis Avallone
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A bull rider has 8 seconds to achieve a qualified ride, starting from when the bull’s shoulder breaks out of the gate, and usually ending when the rider’s hand comes out of the rope or the rider hits the ground.Well, if you are voter in Caddo Parish this November, saddle up, because 8 seconds will be more time than most are given to make their selections in the voting machines – on a ballot that seemingly stretches from here to Hammond.
The usual elected positions are listed on the ballot, of course, ranging from the U.S. Senate to mayor to city marshal to district judge and city judge, and to school board, city council, public service commissioner, and everything in between. On top of all of that, there are also fourteen (14) Louisiana Constitutional amendments to vote on, as well.
Since Louisiana voters only have three (3) short minutes to cast their vote once they enter the voting machine, they must either be informed about their ballot selections ahead of time, or they will hastily vote blindly – and what good is having elections if the latter is the result? Voting blindly means simply that you are being bossed around by those who are not voting blindly. And who wants to be bossed around with their vote, anyways?
Perhaps this is why many of our elected officials can disobey the will of the people, and yet are re-elected to disobey them again and again. Bad choices in those voting machines can result in cities that become bankrupt, or in parishes with higher and higher property taxes, or in needless economic policies that increase our nation’s debt, and in foreign policies that weaken our national security.
If you are going to vote blindly, just stay at home. If that doesn’t appeal to you, then let’s spend the next two (2) months getting educated on the candidates, and the issues.
Depending in which districts you live, there are almost twenty-five (25) ballot items, and with only three (3) minutes to select all of them, you’ll have to make a selection every seven (7) seconds in that voting machine before it will be time for you to go.
And if you haven’t read the fourteen (14) constitutional amendments ahead of time, you’ll never make it in three (3) minutes. There are 626 words describing those amendments on the ballot. And since the average adult reads 300 words-per-minute, that will leave most folks with less than 60 seconds, to make the remaining selections for all of the other elected offices listed on the ballot.
Many say that a long ballot is one of the reasons that most eligible voters don’t vote at all. Voter turnout is continuing to worsen for the United States (42%). Even the Canadians have a higher voter turnout for their elections (60%) than we do, and we are the role model for democracy around the world.
But if government is to be brought within the will of people, in an age of declining voter turnout, and low-information voters, then the ballot must be sufficiently short to allow the will of people to be exercised, or we must do our homework before going into the voting machine.
Some folks might resent the allegation that they vote blindly. But ask many of them whom they voted for in the lieutenant governor’s race in the last election, or in the secretary of state’s race, or the race for state insurance commissioner. How about who they voted for as their parish commissioner or school board member?
The bottom line, long ballot or short one, we must study the speeches of our candidates for public office, consider the arguments for and against them, and then know why we are supporting or opposing them, in the first place – before we go to vote.
I’m not a professional bull rider, of course, but less than 8 seconds just isn’t long enough for anyone in a voting machine, particularly when there are so many important items on the ballot to consider.
Depending on the election results in November, though, bull riding could be an attractive profession for many. I’m sure there is less “bull-you-know-what” being a bull rider than dealing with more government bureaucracy in our lives – any day of the we
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Original Ideas
By Louis Avallone
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The trouble with too many elected officials is that there is no idea too stupid for them to subsidize with your money. After all, these bureaucrats have more of your money than they do any original ideas of their own. In fact, many of them would not recognize an original idea if it bit them on the butt.
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Instead of leading, our elected officials prefer to be more chameleon-like, and simply be what others want them to be.
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But that’s backwards, right? Authentic leaders don’t watch polls to win popularity contests, or calibrate their convictions to win elections. They do the hard work of first setting goals, and then taking initiative.
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They spend money on projects that are for the public good, and not merely on projects that help them while they are in office. Genuine leaders are transparent and they cut costs first, instead of raising your taxes. They set examples of good behavior for us, instead of merely legislating what’s good for us. They don’t blame, and they take responsibility for their actions.
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As long as government has more of our money than good ideas, this type of leader will become more nostalgic in today’s “modern” world – and increasingly rare among elected officials everywhere.
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In fact, Margaret Thatcher once wrote, “Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas?” Maybe that’s why our federal government spent almost $600,000 to study where in a chimpanzee’s brain they get the idea to throw feces. Or why they spent $200 million to fund a reality television show in India to advertise U.S. cotton.
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Or why Congress spent over $1 trillion in economic stimulus spending, when the results were record unemployment rates and the highest number ever of Americans collecting food stamps. Is there really any question that it was a good idea?
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Or was it really a good idea for the President to propose a $1.5 trillion health care expansion and a $15 billion Medicaid bailout, when over 93,000 of our fellow Louisianans are still receiving cancellation notices for their health insurance, and premium costs are expected to rise, even for healthy citizens of our state, by an average of 266 percent this year?
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Is there really any question that $3.7 billion in emergency spending on immigration is a good idea right now, when the current administration is encouraging the very activity that makes $3.7 billion in spending necessary in the first place? If this President won’t enforce immigration laws, aren’t we are only encouraging more illegal activity, and the billions in spending needed to deal with it?
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These are all proof-positive examples of a system of government that has more of your money than they do good ideas. If the government spending more of your money was all that was needed to reduce the unemployment rate, pay down the federal debt, decrease the poverty rate, lower healthcare costs, and increase national security at our borders, wouldn’t we have achieved all of this long, long, long ago?
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Especially in this election year, the leadership model for our elected officials, which currently measures leadership success by money and power, must be retired, and sent off to the scrap yard of history. We must elect leaders now who have more ideas – and not just more of our money – to solve our country’s most pressing problems.
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Perhaps it is true that politics is the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary. But if this remains the conventional wisdom, then how can we really be surprised with the results?
