“Think Black”: Bait & Switch or Trust the Process

It’s that time of the year.  Everyone is excited and buzzing about surprises.  Is it Mother’s Day?  Not yet but you are close.  Is it graduation day? Nope, not yet.  How about Pro Football Draft day?  Right day, the wrong event.  Pro Basketball Championship playoffs.  Well, they are in progress, just not the answer I’m looking for.  NCAA Basketball playoffs, just completed but very important in this region, especially with Duke and UNC fans, but not the answer. 

It is the election where we are all the number one team, the number one draft choice, the lottery winner; if we participate.  But you can’t take part in the victory celebration if you don’t show up for the competition.  You see the ‘It’ is all about the effort.

The effort the voter has to make these days before actually voting is the key.  The due diligence we have to make before we vote is so much more difficult these days.  You see anyone can proclaim anything on the internet.  The allegation, statement, claim, rumor, or whatever you must fight through in order to find the facts or the truth can be exhausting.  No one is spared in this grueling pre-vote exercise.  Lord knows the candidates have to run the gauntlet raising the funds, ignoring their families, literally begging for funds, and bearing the intensely hot spotlight of public scrutiny in this era of “gotcha”. 

Then there are the campaign staff and volunteers who put their hearts and souls into trying to get their candidates over the finish line.  Ignoring the other duties they have in life and if they are volunteers, sacrificing financial compensation.  Campaign staff is working dreadful hours chasing a winning strategy, a memorable campaign event, the public’s pulse, and the popular position on the hottest issue.   But most important of all is us, the voter.  We are what matters most and how seriously we take our most important role makes all the difference.  What makes that role so important?

Man, it is tough being a voter because we have to fight through so much information, misinformation, outright lies, omission of the truth, and facts.  We as voters fight through all of this and dutifully volunteer in community organizations that consistently track and advocate for issues that affect our daily lives.  We develop protocols in our community organizations to ensure fair participation in our community organizations to try to ensure they fairly represent the consensus of our particular community of interest.  So, we must guard the integrity of our vote and of our community organizations.  But this is where it gets tricky.  We put the candidates through a grueling process of questionnaires, interviews, receptions, and campaign rallies.  But we must be confident in our organization, the work we do, and then do what we say the candidates should do, “Do our jobs.”    We built these organizations and processes, and we have to trust them and ourselves.  Even in the face of covert and nefarious efforts of manipulation by “Doubt Fairies” using individuals and other unsuspecting organizations and political action committees. 

“They” come in the night when you least expect them.  Who are they?  The “Doubt Fairies”.  You see after we voters complete our fair, meticulous, and fact-based process is complete, the ”doubt fairies” move in to see if they can get us to flinch, to abandon our hard work.  They move in with innuendos, half-truths, misinformation, and rumors planted with and through the unsuspecting groups and organizations and creating sensational headlines.  The press responds by covering the rumors, half-truths, or misinformation, not because they are true, but because they are “news”.    This orchestrated effort all to try to get us to abandon our organizational principles and integrity.  Even the most well-meaning of us can be manipulated to skirt the responsibility of supporting our properly vetted endorsements.  We see in the current election where candidates received our endorsements after the grueling process detailed above and operatives of the LOSING campaigns who did NOT get the endorsement of our group create some issues to call in to question our endorsement.  The latest sleight of hand is to find some post endorsement issue and try to get us to change our position.  The most recent BAIT AND SWITCH tactic is to say that the donors to candidates are objectionable so the endorsement earned through the rigorous process and scrutiny should be abandoned.  Again, we should TRUST THE PROCESS.  The real trick here by the “doubt fairies” is to create the façade that the objectionable donor was an issue of real relevance and not the other criteria used.  It was important enough for us to change our endorsement, but not important enough for us to scrutinize it during the endorsement process.   Again, we should trust the process.  Doubt Fairies and merchants of misinformation need not apply.  We will TRUST THE PROCESS based on the long-term work we put into the process.  By the way, if you see any more “Doubt Fairies” blow some pixie dust on them and tell them “NO THANKS” we will TRUST THE PROCESS.