It’s A Gray Area:

And that will result in more jobs for productive workers, which will, in turn, generate more wealth for everyone.

My final thought on this matter is that simply getting people to come out and vote in our elections, without more, is not a victory. What we need is voters who are educated about the candidates and all sides of the issues.

Originally, I greeted the arrival of cable television with its many stations to choose from as a blessing. I thought that this would result in more diversity and more exposure to alternative points of view for everyone.

But I was mistaken. Instead, people have now been able to find a television station that caters almost exclusively to their predisposed points of view.

As a result, most voters’ political philosophies have hardened, and our country has become more polarized on both the extreme right and the extreme left. That means that there are fewer and fewer people in the moderate and non-committed center from which the political candidates must seek support. This in turn makes the candidates more polarized, as well.

Does any of this matter? Only if we care about our country and our way of life, and want to pass them along to our children. Because, as I have said before, it is our government, and if it is not working, we have only ourselves to blame. And our way of life is in peril.

JAMES P. GRAY is an Orange County Superior Court judge and author of the book, “Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It — A Judicial Indictment Of The War On Drugs.” He can be reached at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or at his blog site at www.judgejimgray.com.