The Angry Americans, The Voters and The Mid-term Elections.

Anger is a part of our culture, just as it’s expression as violence is a part of our culture. As a society, we see anger expressed in many ways. Some of them are violent crimes, abuse within families, bullying and passive aggressive behavior in order to dominate and control.

Given that this is our culture, our neighborhood and our society, are voters angry? You bet!

How do voters express their anger at the polls?

* Retribution voting. Voters will vote for the opponents of the object of their anger, regardless of what the opponent stands for.

* Prejudicial sterotype voting. If the person they are angry at is a man, or a particular race or a particular ethnicity, the voter may express anger by not voting for anyone of that gender, race or ethnicity as a way of feeling expression of that anger.

* Not voting at all. Lots of angry voters feel that the entire election is rigged, that votes are bought, that campaigns are dishonest, and nobody is trust-worthy. As an expression of that anger, they may throw in their ballot — in the trash can — and refuse to vote as a protest and exhibit of their anger.

To Make Matters More Complicated:

Most people do not keep up on local, state or national politics, and make voting decisions based on very little information. Some of this information is strictly the way a candidate looks — if the candidate’s photo or image has been provided in the campaign — or whether they’re a man or a woman. Many people vote because of what they perceive the candidate to be — the candidate’s ethnicity, career history or last name spelling may all be the sole reason someone votes for them, or a factor in the decision. People with difficult to spell last names may not get votes for the simple reason that voters can’t pronounce their names — and don’t have enough information or education about the process or the candidates to choose in any other way.

And then there’s party affiliation which is what many people use to vote if they don’t know about the ballot, the referendum or the candidate.

Some people actually read the referendum or the information provided on the ballot, and sadly, the writing of these referendums and voter information is often poorly written, poorly informed and poorly translated from legal-ese. This makes voting a bit like playing russian roulette.

Like many government organized projects, voting is often not supervised or organized by top notch people, or when it is, it’s bogged down by red tape that allows the democratic process, but makes change and positive amendments slow.

Still, voting for community, state and federal leaders is the only game of it’s kind in town, and voting is still a much better option, even with it’s foibles, than not voting.