One More Day Alive

The horse race is on again — that chaotic, contentious and glorious phenomenon known as the American presidential campaign. And for the first time in my life, I am inspired by the madness.

While many pundits and critics castigate the field of candidates as less than lackluster, it’s still “anybody’s guess” who will take home the nomination of their parties, let alone who will be president. I find that quite reassuring.

I don’t see voters lamenting a field of contenders that offers no real obvious choice for commander-in-chief, implying that maybe this nation is running out of ideas and leaders with ideas. On the contrary, it’s obvious that for the first time in a long time, the nation is free of the polarizing manipulation of too few choices.

This time around there are not one or two powerful special interest groups dominating the equation, propping up their pick for president while the bulk of the middle class is ignored or simply pacified.

I once wrote a column about how the nation was not polarized, but only the politicians were. In other words they were playing to the extremes, the polarized and usually hateful special interest groups on one side of the aisle or the other because they knew that these tightly knit, politically committed special interest groups could be depended on to get out the vote, and get them elected, even if they ignored the rest of the electorate.

This time around those special interest groups are split and not as powerful.

With several candidates still vying for our votes and splitting up these usually solidified groups, suddenly the whole of the American public is being courted for its vote. For the first time in a long time, every vote really matters, and the politicians need all of us.

Without an obvious winner being shoved down our throat, it leaves us much more capable of criticism and choice. In other words, we can look at the whole field and evaluate what they stand for, what they are proposing for America’s future and how they plan to pull it off.

If you think about it, we haven’t heard such an array of disagreements among candidates within the same party in a long time.

That’s good for the everyday people who can now be heard even more.

And we can all be proud of helping to bring this about. Because as the politicians became increasingly more polarized over the last few decades, we became more independent — all the voters, that is. In Arizona, for instance, a record 28 percent of the electorate now claims no allegiance to either party.

That’s especially good for us Catholics.

That’s because we make up the largest swing vote in the United States (25 percent of the population and 29 percent of U.S. voters). Unlike other blocs, we “swing” either way, Democrat or Republican, depending on the issues at hand.

That’s because we tend to vote our conscience rather than a party. What a concept.

This year, with no one of the candidates firmly securing those large special interest groups, the concept of going simply to their base has been replaced by the need to secure more of the swing voters, like Catholics.

So let’s savor this opportunity and use it as a chance to be heard and to listen and learn about all these candidates.

If you are not sure whom to vote for, then do a little homework. Go to the candidates’ Web sites and read their policy papers. Send their campaigns an e-mail or give them a phone call if you want to know more — and for goodness sake vote in November.

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