ELECTION LETTERS
The Denton Record-Chronicle welcomes letters to the editor pertaining to the Nov. 4 general election. All regular submission rules apply. Letters concerning statewide races and local propositions on the Nov. 4 ballot must be received in this office by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24. None will be published after Friday, Oct. 31.
Paralyzed voters
Opinion polls constantly show historically low ratings for Congress, yet voters continue to keep sending the same people back to Washington. This means that the GOP will retain a majority of the Texas delegation bent on what columnist Frank Bruni calls “a war to gain or maintain turf, rather than battling for a better America.”
The creation of safe, gerrymandered districts assures Texas GOP incumbents they need to do little to earn the vote of those who live in these fixed regions.
One of the negative consequences of such an arrangement is what has been revealed in a recent study that shows the “influence of ordinary Americans registers at a “non-significant, near-zero level.”
Voters have become paralyzed to vote out officials who often disregard their wishes, leaving only the wealthy and special interests of small groups to dictate policy in this country.
Though both parties are guilty of catering to wealthy elites, the Republican loyalty to the highest-income earners is a constant and was duly noted recently when GOP Senators rejected a constitutional amendment that would have overruled Citizens United, the decision that allows unlimited money in political campaigns.
As Bruni opined, “How a country so rightly anxious about the days ahead stays fixed in the days behind is the great paradox of the 2014 elections.” The electorate simply lacks the will to alter habits that have put our government at a standstill and remove those who consistently cater to the whims of millionaires and billionaires.
Larry Beck,
Denton
