Brief, concise and to the point

My freshman civics teacher, Mr. Cormack, assigned many writing projects throughout the year requiring him to repeat his favorite admonition to be “brief, concise, and to the point.” When he assigned a paper extolling the right to vote, I took him seriously and wrote, “If people don’t vote, our country will die. But what if they vote wrong?”

Mr. Cormack responded, “Mr. Clothier, it is possible to be TOO brief, concise, etc.”

Given the state of our election campaigns, I’ve been thinking of historians’ controversies 1000 years in the future (should mankind still rule this planet) over the demise of the greatest experiment of democratic government in human history - the United States of America. I’m sure they would ask questions like “Did it fail because of the increasing percentage of citizens living in poverty? Did the end come when the minority finally was put in a position where they could prevent the majority from acting? Did the country fail when dialogue between opponents became hatred between enemies? Did it happen because each side was sure that if they weren’t predominant, the country was unsafe, and then in their loss set out to make sure it wasn’t safe for the next electoral season?”

Mr. Cormack, with all due respect, what if the voter is not faced with a good/better choice to lead the country. What if, instead, he/she is faced with a bad/worse choice, and that becomes the precedent for our elections from that point on? What if every questionable facet of an individual’s life, real or inferred, becomes public fodder for the supermarket crowd to salaciously revel in. What if past deeds of virtue and empathy are ignored in favor of the defeats and failure of efforts in great causes. What if friends or family members have friends or family that fail to reach an acceptable level of behavior? Was the weight of caring for the innocents of the world so crushing that failure was insured? Can this country, or any country, depending on the “goodness” of its citizens for its continuance, long continue in the face of behavior of classes dedicated to their own profit with no concern for anyone else?

Mr. Cormack, I have a lot of other questions, so would you please be brief, concise, and to the point.