David Brooks columnist described the dilemma so many of us face with the 2016 elections.
Sure we believe in following the rules but what do we do when the rules seem to apply to others rather than ourselves?
What do we do when the political process we have seems to have broken down and the only choice we have is to look to the lesser of evils in candidates or political parties?
In his September 4th column Brooks said, "If you are a tax payer your role in the country is defined by your economic and legal status. Your primary identity is individual. You're perfectly within your rights to do everything you can to look after your self interest.
"As Trump and his advisers have argued, it is normal practise in our society to pay as little in taxes as possible. There are vast industries to help people do this. There is no wrong here.
"The problem with the taxpayer mentality is that you end up serving your individual interest short term but soiling the nest you need to be happy in over the long term.
"A healthy nation isn't just an atomized mass of individual economic and legal units.
"If you orient everything around individual self-interest, you end up ripping the web of giving and receiving. Neighbors can't trust neighbors. Individuals can't trust their institutions and they certainly can't trust their government."
So, as Citizens maybe we need to question whether or not the candidate's political rhetoric is in keeping with our understanding of democratic pluralistic, communal life?
How will what we hear and read affect each of us as well as others, increase our broader understanding and participation of the Citizen's role in a democratic society?
And how will each candidate help us meet the changes we will need to make which will affect each of us, our lives our ambition and our security?
No easy quick answers to be sure. But if we shirk from our responsibility to vote as Citizens we are less than we have always been as a people and as a nation.
SEE YOU AT THE POLLS!
*David Brooks, September 4, 2016
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