Guest Author
Tuesday, Nov. 8, is Game Day!
The election is just days away and the news is all abuzz this morning about “rigged” elections, sexual-assault allegations, FBI investigations, unpaid taxes, and more emails.
Just when you might have thought that the soap opera that is the 2016 presidential election could not get any crazier, well, here you go.
The polling data on a day-to-day basis seems to tell us nothing that is real. They are changing faster than a wind sock in a swirling wind. Depending on who you ask, different models are as much as 15 points different. Media coverage has turned more into partisan propaganda of an Orwellian nature than real news.
Now poll sampling data cannot be trusted, as variance and process between previously respected polling organizations seems to be as different as the respective candidates. Up is down, right is left, cats are playing with dogs … what are we to think?
With game day right around the corner. Maybe the ESPN crew should set up shop in D.C. now to do a few days’ worth of coverage. They can treat it like a national championship game. Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, and crew may do a better job of representing the nature of things at this point. Maybe Chris “The Bear” Fallica can give us a better line on this race than the polling data can. Paul Finebaum can do the hard-hitting interviews that will make all the difference in the last few days prior to the election. I cannot wait for Corso’s prediction and to see him put on either Trump or Clinton headgear.
Just a few days earlier, we were being told that the race was all but over. Down ticket was the focus, and places such as Texas were now in play. Days later all that changed.
Well, I guess this is why we play the game.
The craziness of the election cycle is almost over now. All of the primaries, debates, commercials, news stories, interviews, and punditry have only served to lay the foundation for game day. Call them what you will — practices, dry runs, scrimmages — they have led up to one major game, a winner-take-all battle to be the leader of the free world.
Maybe Hank Jr. should do the theme music for the TV intro: “Are you ready for some football … I mean, an election?”
All kidding aside, this is a serious deal. When I step into the voting booth, I recognize the importance of my vote, the importance of the process, and the implication of a phrase that is used all too often these days: “Elections have consequences.”
I will not just pull the lever and vote the party line. I will understand the issues. I will understand what is at stake in local and regional elections. I will be prepared to articulate why I am voting for who I am voting for. I will understand both the policy and social implications of who I vote for.
This is too important of a process to not take it seriously, even though the process is being turned into a salacious reality TV show.
Blood has been shed through the generations to ensure I have the privilege to participate in our democracy. Thomas Jefferson once said, “The people cannot be all, and always, well-informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.”
I pray that this election will allow our country to move forward on a firm footing. I pray that society writ large will become more conscious of how our behavior, our votes, and our blind support of certain rhetoric is allowing the electoral process to be turned into a joke.
I pray that our betters in society will begin to understand how their behavior has set us down the path we are on today. We have serious issues in our country, and those issues deserve serious people.
May God bless this election, and may He continue to bless the United States of America.
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University of Central Florida columnist Gerrod Lambrecht is director of football operations at UCF. He can be reached at [email protected].
