Did Kansas teach us anything? If you’re worried about next election, get out and vote

I know I’m getting older, but I still remember the evening of Aug. 2, 2022, as if it were only, well, about three months ago.

I was standing in my kitchen, finishing up the dinner dishes and wiping down the counters, preparing myself for not only a long night of inconclusive voting results, but also a possible resounding, definitive defeat. I was prepared for what I’d been hearing from pollsters.

And then it was happening. MSNBC, CBS, NPR and CNN all began releasing numbers. It looked like Kansans were voting to retain our Constitutional amendment to autonomy over our bodies. My phone began to ding with messages from friends and family around the country. The world suddenly started hearing from Kansas.

Some said it was about abortion, but I called it the choice issue, because we chose control over lies and confusion about numbers.

Fast forwarding to this Nov. 8 election, and I am hearing similar doomsday polling predictions that the midterm elections will disappoint those of us who were outraged and spoke up this summer after Roe v. Wade was overturned by a politically motivated Supreme Court. Their evidence is that the economy (inflation) is in the fast lane, and our issues of choice and the future of reproductive health care are getting smaller in the rearview mirror.

Am I insane? Or is it normal to become outraged, vote on a significant issue and win it, and then wait patiently but unflinchingly for the next chance to vote again? Despite the states that are trying to, and actually succeeding at, subverting voting access, we are still here, still angry, and at last check, still planning to vote.

Why are pollsters shoving these negative statistics down our throats? I am one in a two-person household, but no one has polled me for my opinion. Yes, my phone rings all day from UNKNOWN numbers, but I have no interest in giving my opinion to strangers on the phone, at the grocery store or a street corner. My interest is in a free and fair election, unobstructed by Kansas’ Republican legislature’s attempts to squelch voting because they have a majority.

The 2020 presidential election results have been challenged repeatedly by the so-called MAGA Republicans, even though they know it was fairly won by Joe Biden. How they keep this lie alive, why they do it and how they can keep it up is beyond my comprehension. It’s like when my kids were little and got caught in one of their odd lies: I waited it out, confronted them, dealt with it, doled out the time outs and got on with parenting.

In this election, we are dealing with grown people who are lying out loud, on camera, in Congress, in their re-election ads, anywhere they can. We know they are lying, and they know they are lying. But no one is parenting. This is where the pollsters step in. They see a chance to get the kids out in the yard, nursing their hurt feelings, and turn the cameras on to beef up the hype.

On Aug. 2, I went outside and looked up and down my quiet street. No one was setting off fireworks or honking horns, as we did after the World Series and the Super Bowl. But I knew that Kansans were thanking each other for doing the right thing.

Vote to retain the judges, and elect candidates who have shown respect for our rights to maintain personal autonomy and make our reproductive health care decisions. Don’t let the pollsters manipulate the outcome. We are in charge.

Contact Ellen at murphysister04@gmail.com