Your turn: Democracy is only at risk if voters don't do their due diligence

"This is the most important election in our lifetime." We've all heard that. But where have you heard it before? Oh, yeah, Barack Obama said it in 2012. Bernie Sanders said it about the 1996 election. Governor Frank Fitzgerald said it when running for Michigan governor in 1936. You probably don't remember when the Pittsfield Sun declared it in 1813. The point is, somebody says that during every election season.

If you're the candidate, any election is the "most important" to you. The rest of us might take a deep breath and calm down as we realize that neither the results of this election nor any other will cause the end of the world. (Something else will cause that.)

That brings to mind a companion claim that "democracy is on the ballot." The logical conclusion to that idea is that if you vote the wrong way, it will mean the end of our democracy. Yipes! That sounds serious, doesn't it? It gets more complicated because you could be responsible for losing our democracy if you don't vote or if you vote the wrong way.

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The curious thing about this fear is that it is harbored by both sides.

Warning to readers: The following ideas are not presented as truth, but a lot of people believe them whether they're true or not.

The Democrats ran on "democracy is at stake" in 2022 and were fairly successful. They obviously pointed to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol to support their argument. Trump recently helped their case when he said he would be a dictator "on day one." His political brilliance is demonstrated daily with his stupid posts on Truth social. All of it adds up to the reason Democrats think if Trump is elected democracy will end.

Conversely, Republicans warn that if Biden is reelected it could mean the end of our political system. Looking just at the feeble old codger, it's hard to see how he could do anything but what his government is doing does raise concerns.

In many undemocratic countries, it is standard practice to lock up your political opponents. Leaders in Russia, Pakistan, Brazil and several African countries routinely imprison their rivals to make elections easier. With Democrats seeking to put the other party's candidate in jail, it's not hard to see how people view it as a misuse of the justice system.

Or when the “Justice” Department prosecutes one candidate for keeping secret documents but gives the other one a pass because he’s too old.

There have been some elections where democracy was truly at stake. The best example was in 1864 when the country was embroiled in the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was running for reelection against the man who had been his chief general. There were a million men fighting all over the country. If Lincoln lost, his opponent had promised to try to bring the war to an end, essentially allowing the South to form a separate country. Now those were some high stakes!

To think that our form of government will not survive if one or the other of the candidates is elected sells our country short. It suggests that the acts of one person could wipe out twelve score and eight years of freedom. There are multiple safeguards and guardrails to prevent one person from destroying our country.

But it is also we, the people, who brought this on ourselves. Politicians treat voters in three ways. They take them for granted, they ignore them, or they buy them off. Gerrymandering has created a system where most candidates running for reelection don’t have any real opposition. Hence, they don’t really worry about what they do because they know there is a majority who will vote for them no matter what. They don’t care what the other folks say because they don’t need their votes.

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We can see that quite clearly in Illinois. Democrats control all of state government and do whatever they please. If support starts to flag among some part of their base, they simply spread the money where it’s needed and those folks fall back in line.

In one sense, you can’t blame the politicians. They’re just doing what they need to do to get reelected. The fault is our own. To paraphrase the old comic strip character, Pogo, “we have met the problem, and he is us.”

Every election is important. But the most important part of any election is that voters take time to become educated about the issues. We must also be willing to reevaluate our standard way of thinking about things. Times do change and sometimes that means we must change, too.

If voters continue to blindly follow their old voting habits and the parties that rely on them, democracy truly is at risk.

Harry Bulkeley is a retired judge in Knox County.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: Voters need to research before 2024 election