Jon had a great rant today... two of them, actually, but one of them I told him to write up (actually, I told him to write it up and sent it to a publication of some sort, but didn't have a blog in mind...:-). He makes several salient points about how we view political campaigns, candidates, and our choices in supporting/voting for them.

My favorite point, and the one he needs to shout to the masses, is the point that choosing a candidate to support ought not to mean that one ceases to think critically about what that candidate says and does. Nor should election. Questioning elected officials, or those who would wish to be elected, is not a breach of patriotic duty; it IS a patriotic duty. If I elect someone to do what I think is best for my country, and suddenly I find that's not what's being done, I'm going to complain as loudly as I can to whomever I can. I would want everyone to know that this person who was elected to represent what I think no longer does so. If I blindly support everyone I vote for, I am in tacit agreement with everything they do, whether it represents my personal beliefs or not.

Elected officials are not heroes. They are not people who know better than you what to do with your vote. They are elected because direct democracy would be a logistical nightmare (and you thought DC traffic couldn't get much worse...). The process only begins with election, yet we act as if it ends there. I am partially responsible for the decisions of every elected official who represents me. You can bet your ass I'm going to raise a stink if I don't agree with them.