Article: Vote To Restore Democracy

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Today it's important that people go out and vote. This year however, there is something on the ballot more important than a particular candidate or issue. Our biggest concern should be how our government functions. When our founding fathers wrote the Constitution they designed a unique system of government; A government that was meant to prevent any one person, or group of people from wielding too much power. They divided the federal government into 3 separate branches: the Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Then they further divided the Legislative branch into 2 separate houses. Power was split among these 4 parts. This is what we call the System of Checks and Balances, by giving each branch power they would have the ability to monitor each other and prevent mistakes or abuses of power. Currently this system is not in affect. We have no checks or balance.

Since the 2000 election, the Republican Party has controlled the executive branch as well as both parts of the legislative branch. That means one group of people controls 3/4th of our government. In the past six years the president has vetoed only one single piece of legislature from congress, also during this time the congress has rarely ever questioned presidential policy and has never denied his requests. The purpose of having separate branches of government is that they should question each other. Currently, this does not happen. A small group of Republican leaders are in complete control of all federal decision making, this form of government is called an oligarchy not a democracy. Therefore, in order to restore our government to a true democracy it is necessary to vote for Democratic candidates in today's congressional elections.

By simply removing the Republican majority from one house of congress we can reestablish the checks and balance that our Constitution intended the federal government to have. We must look beyond individual candidates or issues. Often it seems as if there is no difference between candidates, but we must look at the larger picture. This election is not about taxes, war or marriage it's about our democracy functioning properly. Until we return balance to our government, debating individual issues becomes a moot point. Our current government is broken. We must fix it. That is the beauty of the Constitution; it allows us to make corrections, to make changes when things don't work. That's why every citizen is given the right to cast his or her vote every two years to affect change, to fix what is broken.

To find your local polling place visit:
www.canivote.org
www.vote411.org
www.vote-usa.org

Or call your local board of elections located in the blue pages of your phone book.

This letter was not prepared by any political group. It was written by one concerned citizen.