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THURSDAY. OCTOBER
Ask Yourself
(he election: is less than four weeks away. Fuel
prices are high, credit is scarce, the economy JL teeters on the edge of recession if indeed it is not already in the throes of it. Twenty-eight years ago. the situation was not all that much different. Although we were not at war as we are now. Americans were being held captive by a band of revolutionaries intent on imposing a sectarian state in a country that today is between two other countries in which American soldiers are fighting and. dying
In that election, one candidate asked these simple questions:
“Ask yourself are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that were as strong as we were four years ago?*'
Those words were spoken by Ronald Reagan at the Carter-Reagan presidential debate on Oct. X9SQ. They echo across the years reverberating now more loudly than ever This presidential election is perhaps
important in a generation, maybe even severThere
have been huge increases in voter registrations across the country Here in Rappahannock County — with a population of roughly 7,000 - there are currently 5,6Qb registered voters, according to Nancy & Newlin. registrar ofvoters, with, new registrations added daily Taking into account the nearly 1.000 students in schools, the county is approaching nearly 100 percent of eligible voters registered. Maybe a tot of people are asking the same questions.
Although the world changes, and sometimes things are better and sometimes worse, these simple benchmarks are still among the best measures of the effectiveness of any government and its policies. In a representative democracy, the state does not exist to serve itself but to serve those by whose consent they govern and in this election those whom they serve are all Americans.
So when die partisan wrangling reaches fever pitch, and party identification or loyalty to ideologies seems to trump common sense, ask yourself these questions: Are you better off! do you feel safer do you think America is a better nation than it was. 'Chen decide.
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