Put your conscience above party in 2020 when time to vote

Many of us will pause today to embrace this start of a new year with resolutions to be better people.
But whether we’re willing to do more than say out with the old calendar and in with the new one is still to be determined, of course.
Yet, it’s still as if when we turn the final page on 2019 we are given still another opportunity to do the right thing and be a force for good.
We’ll exchange hopes for happiness and good fortune in 2020 much like we did gifts a week ago for Christmas. We also will take time to remember others and many will continue to open their hearts to help charitable causes.
And perhaps we’ll remember the spirit of the season — that of kindness, charity and love for others.
Yet, like some kind of dark cloud or gnawing pain that just won’t go away there is also something like a particular dread about this new year.
Though our personal challenges and worries may never be more clear than today, many shudder at the thought of the trials to looming larger by the day for our country.
It’s not just the upcoming state and national elections, the impeachment trial or even the regular session of the Legislature and so on that’s causing this dismay.
Perhaps the House of Representatives’ impeachment vote was most emblematic of the true underlying concern in these hyper-partisan times.
That vote Dec. 18 was very bad news for the legacy of President Trump, despite what happens in his Senate trial or at the polls in November.
But what was truly disconcerting for our country, 197 Republicans voted against impeachment, and all 233 Democrats believed equally strongly the other way.
You have to believe that the issues in this vote were too complex, or self-evident, and those men and women too intelligent to arrive at such a strictly partisan vote.
But it’s obvious that individual conscience and thought as a moral compass of government has gone astray.
That is, such voting has stuck us with a government divided by party — where our leaders look to their party loyalty instead of that to their country or their conscience.
We will undoubtedly see this same kind of tribal voting at the polls this year and during the legislative session and continuing in Congress, despite the gravity of these times.
Some will argue in the coming months that the conduct of the president matters. As does the conduct of the members of the House and the Senate as well as our own.
But we believe, more importantly the Constitution of our country and the rule of law matters most — more than either party or our politics.
It’s our hope that we resolve in the coming year to look beyond regimented partisan voting and politics.
We are often more inclined to look for the good in others and practice more patience at this time of the year.
Why not keep that spirit in our hearts and consicence throughout the coming year.