We are within a week of the 2014 election in America. I get the feeling that very few people really care about who wins. What has happened is that as a result of the politics of the obstructionist’s nothing got done in the last two years.  They believe that no matter what political party wins next Tuesday nothing will get done in the next two years.

Even though the government re-opened after it was shutdown, it might as well have stayed closed. The Tea Party right-wing of the Republican Party has won. Nothing major got done.

According to the polling, the public is blaming the President and Congress on both sides of the aisle for the lack of action and results from the government that we elect to represent us. I find the polling result understandable but disappointing. It is easy to place the blame on the President for as President Truman once said, “The buck stops here.” I expect the feelings that Lincoln once waxed philosophically about when he said how you can please some of the people some of the time. And to be frank you can’t please some of the people any of the time.

We should place the blame where it really belongs and that is with the people in Congress who represent the oligarchs, and who are quite happy with gridlock. For the very wealthy it is to their interests that nothing get done that negatively affects their wealth. No news is good news.

For the true believers, those who claim the Tea Party mantle and are right leaning libertarians, no government action fits their world view. The idea of keeping government out of their and our daily lives sounds great.

Whether you are talking about fixing potholes or having a minimum wage that people can live on, inaction leads to a whole lot of unhappy people. Our citizens are increasingly discovering that government has a role to fill in our lives. When services are affected by having lower taxes, citizens are the first to scream about how things are not working. But when it comes to making the important choices of voting those responsible out of office what do voters do in many cases? They stay home from the polls.

Republicans make no bones about voter suppression, they are admitting that voter suppression is only about winning. When people are not allowed to vote we all lose. Our Republic is very much in danger due to apathy, despair and anger, and the very real efforts by Republicans to keep people from voting. We should all be alarmed by these acts of voter suppression.

Gerrymandering also distorts the results by stacking the deck in favor of one political party over another.

Instead of blaming everyone we should send a loud and clear message on Tuesday and that is to throw the obstructionists out of office. If they gain greater power through victories on Tuesday, they will be encouraged to do more obstructionism in the future. Our votes count for something but if we stay home and do not vote our very representative democracy is on the line. Please vote on Tuesday November 4, 2014.