The View from here: Worth noting ...

This is an election year where I hope that many of the significant issues end up taking a back seat to a much more critical issue: trust.

We do a lot of talking about our lack of trust in government. And the pollsters back that up with some disturbing numbers.

The approval rating of President George W. Bush and Gov. Jennifer Granholm are barely above 30 percent and our legislators in both Washington DC and Lansing collectively score less than 20 percent.

Earlier in the year in their “state of” messages both the president and the governor promised to revitalize the economy, bring jobs to the United States and Michigan, respectively, promote public safety ... and both also promoted bi-partisanship as the method to accomplish these tasks.
Whether these lofty goals and promises to work together are just posturing and political rhetoric remains to be seen. After the state budget fiasco last year and the ongoing discord in Washington, voters certainly have reason to be skeptical.

Some of our mistrust is bred by a weakened economy, rising health care costs and a litany of other problems that are out of our control.

And with every politician’s misdeed, followed by a lie to cover it up, we lose even more confidence in all of our elected leaders. Petty bickering over partisan issues to place the blame on the other guys further serves to decrease our confidence.

Voter apathy has allowed many contests to be decided in favor of those who can pander to an increasingly smaller set of voters and motivate them on a far-too-narrow set of issues.
The answer clearly is for all of us to vote.

Whether it’s a candidate for school board or for President, we need a whole lot more people in office who reject narrow agendas, understand the art of compromise and clearly honor the truth.
It’s worth a try. It couldn’t hurt.