In what is euphemistically called the ‘presidential primary season’, a time when the populace cast their votes for a slate of candidates presented by inept and conspiratorial private business enterprises believing they are government, one of the apparently forgotten tenets of a free and democratic republic is the concept of the secret ballot.
The principle of the secret ballot is singularly thus: citizens are allowed to have their voice heard, without fear of governmental sanction or retribution.
The right to vote can duly take its place amongst the higher echelons of the precious gifts given to us by the framers and the founders who in their wisdom understood that a free and open democracy relies on the safety and security of an unconstrained electorate.
The fight to protect this fundamental tenet of American democracy has been waged and won by the blood of those who understood the importance of America
The electorate needs to remember this when the cult of personality infects the body politic under the guise of a political ‘endorsement’ and attempts to subjugate democracy to political short term expediency.
The premise of the endorsement is as follows, given the examples set in recent years.
A potential candidate, seeking to secure a position of political power and leadership, buttressed by claims of a singular focus to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, seeks short term electoral advantage by garnering a public show of support from a popular non-candidate, or from a recently vanquished political rival.
The absurdity of this minor bit of incestuous pas de deux seems to be missed by the media at large, and by a majority of the nation as a whole.
Consider the true nature of what an endorsement is: a private citizen casting aside their sacred right, and their civic responsibility to defend the right to a secret ballot, for the fleeting flaccid opportunity to bask in the fluorescent glow of vapid citizenship.
The arrogance of the endorser, primped and primed for their public display of ignorance exemplifies the insidious nature of politics today. The solipsistic belief that a public seal of approval from such a singular show of support flies in direct opposition to the secret ballot and displays a lack of intellectual heft.
This demonstrative shallow understanding of the heart of American independence should give every citizen serious cause for pause; a candidate that believes a voter will sway towards them merely because of a vote of confidence from anyone so willing to dismiss their own civic responsibility for mere momentary popularity is not an individual who should be given the opportunity to serve in government.
The price of freedom is to accept the diligent responsibility to protect and respect that freedom.
The American electorate needs to display their birthright of a secret ballot by shunning those who would both accept a political endorsement, and those who choose to make such a display of constitutional idiocy.
Our ancestors gave their lives to protect our right for a secret ballot; we owe our posterity that example of electoral intelligence.
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