Think before voting

My folks served in the Army during World War II, both of them. My dad was a general’s aid stateside and in France, and my mom was a decorated captain in the WAAC in England and France. Both were Republicans and proud of it. They thought Eisenhower was a god so much so that when he made a brief stop at Cleveland Hopkins Airport during his 1952 presidential campaign, they pulled my brother, sister and me out of school just to see him emerge briefly from his airplane to wave to the crowd. As a result, when I was old enough to vote (21), I voted Republican, and I was proud to do so.

About the time Watergate happened and Agnew and Nixon were forced out of office, I was getting pretty skeptical about the Republican Party. It felt like the party was losing its way and forgetting what it stood for and whom it served. The last Republican presidential candidate I voted for was Reagan, and when the GOP went on its wasteful rampage to run Clinton out of office for improprieties that should have been between him and Hillary, I wrote my congressman, Scott McInnis, and said if the Republicans didn’t stop the stupid drama and get back to the people’s business, I would quit the Republican Party, join the Democratic Party and actively work to see him replaced. They didn’t quit the nonsense, but I quit the Republican Party.

Since then, the Republican Party has been slowly spiraling down to rock bottom. Now we are faced with an election in November that portends serious consequences for our country on almost every front.

Before you fill in the bubbles on your ballot. I am asking you to think really hard about this election – and then think again. Ask yourself who of all the elected officials, local, state and national, on your ballot are going to honor our American values, respect and uphold democracy, guard against the pervasive threat of dictatorship and autocracy, and provide you with a safe, healthy and reasonably comfortable future? Who has you and your family’s best interest at heart? Who is capable of providing a safe environment in which to live? Who is going to work hardest to protect and safeguard our planet, and who is going to recognize and bring healthy dignity to your personal health issues?

Think, fellow voters. The consequences of this election more than ever before are going to have lasting effects not merely for the next four years but for decades to come. What takes place on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, will chart the future for you, your children and your grandchildren. Think hard about your vote and your loved ones.

Thank you for taking part in your constitutional right by voting this year.

– John Egan, Durango