Watching the news this morning after the mid-term elections, I keep hearing the phrase “What went wrong . . . ” For me, that’s part of the problem we’ve seen lately. When we have the voter turnout that we saw for yesterday’s elections, it’s not wrong, it’s democracy. Some of my thoughts on the matter:

Perhaps if politicians stopped thinking about what tactics they need to use in order to win and gave more thought to “How was I not representing my constituents,” we could get rid of some of the “us versus them” rhetoric.

Elections are a contest to decide who best represents our towns, cities, counties, states and country. They’re not a battlefield to see who is most effective at slinging mud and cutting down other candidates.

Elections are all about finding those people that are able to listen to the needs of their constituents and the needs of others and working to find a solution through compromise. They’re not about back room deals and “If you’ll scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” I like what Donna Martini said, “Compromise is not about losing. It’s about deciding that the other person has just as much right to be happy with the end result as you do” (and no, I have no idea who Donna Martini is but she said it, not me). 

Things didn’t go wrong yesterday. Some people won their contests, others lost. Those that won need to refrain from gloating and get out there and work to represent the needs of ALL their constituents, not just the ones that voted for them. The ones that lost need to listen to the people they want to represent and work out better ways to represent ALL of the people they want to serve.

One final thought for today . . . although we call our elected officials our leaders, they are NOT our leaders. They are our civil servants. Yes, they should be treated with respect, but they have chosen to serve, not to be served and we should all keep that distinction in mind.