Miner Queries | Cherie Miner

Those who’ve studied history know our founding fathers never envisioned America having political parties. Instead, the candidate with the largest number of votes would claim the presidency and the number two finisher would serve as vice president.  Yet the struggle for power quickly devolved.

As Professor Willard Sterne Randall wrote in a 2012 Huffington Post article, “Washington, a thin-skinned chief executive, only decided to stay on for a second term to prevent his lieutenants from, as he feared, splitting the country into two parties. To him, political parties spelled disunion.”

Yet he was unable to prevent the rise of two dominant factions.  So we’re left with this binary system, which should make it easy to research candidates and choose, shouldn’t it?

Unfortunately, Americans use the party system like the Staples Easy Button. Pick a party and follow it with no knowledge about party leadership, platform and funding. Never bother to look into the opposing viewpoint. Never question your sources. Don’t get involved in party leadership. Instead stick blindly to your side.

We Americans, who love to brag about our exceptionalism, vote in lower numbers than nearly every other western democracy. And as I’ve learned talking with people, we know very little about our own government. 

Too often, I meet people who don’t know their representatives in the statehouse and Congress. 

And what do they know about the president? Usually, it’s whatever TV news outlets and talk radio tell them. People listen as so-called “news and information” is poured into their ears with little context and attribution. We simply accept what’s presented, cluck our tongues and shake our heads at these unbelievable stories (Maybe they really are unbelievable!) without digging any deeper.

For those of us claiming America is a Christian nation, I hope this brings to mind Paul’s second letter to Timothy, chapter 4, verses 3-4: “There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. They will collect teachers who say what they want to hear because they are self-centered. They will turn their back on the truth and turn to myths.”

As Emma Roller wrote in an Oct. 25 New York Times opinion piece, “The strongest bias in American politics is not a liberal bias or a conservative bias; it is a confirmation bias, or the urge to believe only things that confirm what you already believe to be true. . . . 

“So, where do we go from here? There’s no simple answer, but the only way people will start rejecting falsehoods being fed to them is by confronting uncomfortable truths.” 

For voters this cycle, a host of inconvenient truths remain to be acknowledged. Both candidates have long histories. For anyone paying attention in the 1980s, Trump’s bad behavior and failed business ventures were apparent then. 

And as the first First Lady to break the traditional mold, Hillary Clinton has been the target of an endless stream of vitriol and innuendo. She has been investigated and reinvestigated –  with no proof of wrongdoing. She’s endured it all and still found ways to promote the causes of women and children. 

She may be an imperfect candidate, but she is certainly not the lesser of two evils. 

Cherie Miner is a local parent, community volunteer, freelance writer and artist. Contact her at news@redoakexpress.com or on Facebook.