YAWN! IT'S ELECTION DAY IN TUCSON

posted by Michael Chihak

We can blame government, or we can blame the candidates.

In either instance, it would be like motorists blaming the automakers or the auto dealers for providing Hummers and other gas-guzzling road beasts.

We're the customers. When we insist on economical vehicles, we get them.

As customers of government, we can get what we want. But we must insist. And that means making ourselves heard first and foremost at the ballot box.

We're the customers -- customers of government.

If we think about it that way, rather than thinking of ourselves as citizens or voters, we might begin creating a new mindset that allows us to re-engage in the democratic system.

If a merchant does poorly by us -- sells us inferior goods or provides lousy service or maybe even charges us too much or gives the wrong change -- we complain. We let the cashier or a customer service representative or even the manager or the owner know.

We do it even with the monopoly businesses that we are customers of -- the electric and gas utilities, the cable TV company. We complain when service is bad, and we get results more often than not.

Those consumer actions push change in the businesses. Dry cleaners knock a button off your best suit? Make a complaint; they'll fix it and improve the service. Store clerk not thank you after taking your hard-earned money (a pet peeve of mine, by the way)? Point it out to the clerk and the manager. You'll get an apology and a thanks.

If it experiences enough complaints, a business will change.

What about government? We want change, we insist on change, we rant and rave for change. What we don't do is vote for change. What we do is we don't vote; we walk away.

That's not working, is it?

We should behave like customers of government, asking to get what we pay for and complaining if we don't. Just walking away isn't working for us.

If you're eligible, vote today. If you're not, get eligible for the general election coming in November.

Yes, the choices this time out are pretty meager. That's the customers' fault for not insisting on better.

Start insisting; we customers of government have to start somewhere.