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By now, there’s a good chance that you’ve received a mailer or two from a candidate for office hoping to glean your support in the upcoming election season.

There will be a number of local, state and nationally important races you’ll be asked to take part in as a registered voter and while it’s important that each person recognize their civic duty to the democratic process, it’s also important that those running for office, whether new or  looking to get reelected, understand that we are a results-oriented system.

Our democracy these days is littered with far too much finger-pointing toward the other side, leveling blame on those they perceive to be getting in the way of their intended goals.

We hear generalized  phrases that echo, “Well, we need to do this, but they are standing in the way.” Rather we should, and need, to be hearing, “This is not working, here is what I will do to attempt to find a solution.”

In a news cycle filled to the brim with distracting antics of politicians, we the people are not hearing near enough on those solutions needed to break through the mud trail keeping the entire process bogged down.

It’s not enough to simply tell us what you are going to stand for. It has to include logical and realistic plans to get to a point where the common good is realized rather than simply being one party winning out over the other.

You are representing the people of your designated area, not just the party of affiliation. Politics has to be about compromise and at least listening to the other side, rather than dismissing them out of hand.

Some of this falls on the voters. We have to be willing to cut through everything else to ask pointed questions of these people: What are you going to do? How are you going to do it? What are your specific goals? It can no longer be about broad and sweeping generalizations of “we need to lower taxes” and “I’m going to stand up for your rights.”

These are all great discussions, but there seems to be a real disconnect these days in determining how we’re even going to get to that point.

We, as voters, are placing a large responsibility on those heading to office to represent our concerns. It’s a burden we do not place lightly, but rather with the stern understanding that not only will they represent all of us, but  that they will do so with well thought out plans, with motivated routes to how they will get to those plans.

Anything else is falling short of that heavy responsibility. It can no longer be “the other side won’t play ball.” The first question instead needs to be, “What can we do to get there?”