In a few days the election will be all over. We will be pleased with some of the results and displeased by others. One thing we can reach consensus on is that we will be happy the TV ads and the phone calls are over.
It has been said that politics is ugly, and it is, but it is also, at the same time, beautiful.
Yes, we have to put up with a barrage of campaign rhetoric, much of it negative, and it gets to be sickening. Campaign reform is needed. The money spent could go to greater uses. The Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United has had unfortunate consequences.
But this is our democracy in action.
The alternative is a society where descent and freedom of speech is prohibited. Where we do not have a system of checks and balances between the three branches on government. As much as we complain that only the elite run the world, it could be worse, it has been worse throughout history, and is some places, it is worse.
Since the battle of Bunker Hill men and women have sacrificed life, limb, and fortune to give us the freedoms we have. They have fought on the battlefields, home and abroad, they have marched in protest on our streets, they have gained freedom and equality and the right to vote and hold office, or the right to not vote, not participate, not hold office.
The choice is ours.
It is not that way everywhere in the world, and certainly not for all people.