After Missouri's Primary election this month, my 87-year-old mother announced she had decided to retire from being a ballot judge in her home town. She hoped she wasn't shirking her civic duty but the steps and layout in the old courthouse ballot room had gotten a little bit much for her. I told her that I thought that after nearly 30 years of local, state and federal election day duty, people would understand her taking it a little easier.
Mom has been a part of a four-woman judge team, two Democrats and two Republicans. It's a small town, so they know each other well. They really do see politics in very different ways and vote in very different ways. They have for decades. Friendship survives.
After the Florida "hanging chad" drama of the 2000 election, I asked Mom how her group handled questions like that. I recall her answer being that they just used common sense on each ballot in question and there wasn't any disagreement.
I suppose this kind of civic harmony could be ascribed to a distant past that can be found only in small towns. But I've lived my entire adult life in large urban-core cities, and I get the same civic harmony vibe every time I go to the polls in my neighborhoods.
Of course, this Norman Rockwell image of American democracy flies in the face of nearly every tone we are hearing in the season's political campaigns. Americans have good reason to be politically fighting each other tooth and nail. Tremendous things are at stake with widely varying visions for America.
We at NumbersUSA will remain civil but we will also be bold in advancing our vision of a sustainable America in which local communities of all kinds are not forced to undergo radical change -- and American workers don't have to fear a collapse of their occupations -- due to mass immigration they never approved.
But we will also remember that among the people who stand with the "other side" are some of our neighbors, family and even friends who somehow just haven't seen the light the way we have.
However the November elections turn out, we will the next day renew the fight for our vision on the new playing field provided by the voters. We'll just hope they have as much common sense as we do!
And in case I forget to do so later this fall, thanks to all of you who, like my mother (Freda Beck) these last three decades, volunteer your time to the civil process of running the fair elections upon which our system of governance depends.
ROY BECK is President & Founder of NumbersUSA
