Brian Greenspun on how our votes matter, even if sometimes mistakes are made and we get another chance

Sunday, March 18, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

Votes matter.

It is easy to understand why I haven't been able to find many people in Nevada who will admit to voting for President George W. Bush in 2004. No one wants to admit that they could make such a huge mistake and, more important , no one likes to be made the fool.

Mistakes can be and often are made in the political arena. That's a fact of life and one of the things that proves the resilience of our representative democracy. We can make an error in judgment in how we vote, whom we choose or what we choose to do, and our system of government almost always lets us recover from our errant ways.

But none of us takes kindly to being taken advantage of or being made the fool. That's why the best I can get these days from those who have supported our president in the past is, "I didn't vote for this" and "I wish I had known." Recently I heard from a longtime friend and stalwart Republican Party operative, "This is not the party or the principles of Ronald Reagan. Frankly, I don't recognize it."

To all of this and to those who are now espousing words of surprise and feigned "shock and awe" over how bad one group of folks could govern a country like ours, mine is not to say I told you so but, rather, to look to ourselves as the culprits and make sure we don't do that again. There are any number of reasons, large and small, which urge me to urge you to pay attention to how you vote and for whom you cast the ballot that gives the right and privilege of others to lead.

For far too long we have sold our prerogatives to those with the slickest ads on television, most virulent hit pieces that reach our mailboxes - why do you think they call it junk mail - or even those who know not much but espouse so confidently that which they have only heard to all those who willingly listen.

And the buck doesn't just stop on the desk of President Bush, who may be a decent man with reasonable instincts but who, in the practice of some ideological imperative, has acted arrogantly and ignorantly in the face of overwhelming facts to the contrary. Pick a subject. And, just for the record, it isn't only national politics in which the voters let themselves down. I could point to some states - one in particular - in which the voters wanted to recall their votes if not the people for whom they voted, barely hours after the elected people started making decisions. There is plenty of bad judgment, poor execution and lack of talent to go around.

I, like many other voters, have been thinking along these lines because it is hard to find people who will take responsibility for the obscene nature of our democracy at work today. Whether it is the embarrassing spectacle of Valerie Plame Wilson testifying before Congress about her being "outed" as a covert CIA agent by the White House and its political operatives, the incredibly bad judgment and poor execution surrounding our latest sojourn into the Middle East, a sneak peek into the future of voluntary compliance at the IRS - can our government really want to encourage neighbors to turn against their neighbors so the government can save money collecting taxes? - or this idea that only Republicans have a lock on the concept of supporting the war while those who oppose sending troops into battle for "more of the same" are less than patriotic.

There is something going around in Washington and other seats of power in this country in which those we elect to lead us take it upon themselves to justify every bad or ignorant act on the basis that they, and they alone, know best and that those who elected them know nothing or very little. What is most bothersome is the attitude of the voters, any number of whom accept the officeholders' premise and look with disdain upon their fellow citizens who have the nerve to disagree.

All of that leads to a level of frustration that can lead down a path away from healthy democratic values.

Take, for instance, the Democrats in Congress and their desire to fulfill the wishes of Americans who have demonstrated at the last election a desire for a significant change in the conduct of the war in Iraq. Most people will agree that pulling out of Iraq precipitously could cause a terrible situation to get much worse. They would also agree, though, that to continue as if there is nothing wrong in the execution of this war is equally bad. So what to do?

It is folly to cut off funds for our troops while they are in harm's way. It is also folly to not do what lawmakers can to convince the president that his methods are flawed and that he should change his ways. The problem exists when Congress realizes that the commander-in-chief lives down the street and, unless he comes about, there is little those who control the purse, and not much else, can do. So we get stuck in some kind of limbo that frustrates the voters and causes them to turn away from rather than toward political involvement.

All of that results in young people being turned off, older and minority voters being turned away and those given to public service being turned down by an electorate more concerned with the form of the candidates rather than the substance behind them.

If we have learned nothing else the past few years, it should be that this country not only deserves but also requires leadership that is astute, intelligent, visionary and fully capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. We also need public servants who are not so stiff-necked that they would allow their ideology to trump fact and reality, and we need people in high office who have the ability and desire to lead this nation rather than push it to the right or left as the officeholder sees fit.

We have an election coming up next year in which the voters may have a choice that will include people with brains and the ability to use them. Here's hoping that we have all had enough of the alternative to recognize the smart ones and act accordingly. Our votes do matter.

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