It is time to throw down the gauntlet, challenging the conventions that have ruled politics for decades.

The bottom line: If you vote a straight-ticket ballot you are failing in your civic responsibility to be an educated, involved member of society.

In fact, more than likely, you are hurting the nation in ways that will impact your children and your children’s children.

The Nov. 2 election is just a few weeks away, and the partisan propaganda is out in full force.

Being mid-year elections that could swing the balance of power on a national level, the rhetoric and criticism are flowing freely.

But our nation’s struggles were not created by Republicans. They were not created by Democrats.

And our woes won’t be fixed by just one or the other either.

Although it doesn’t happen on a local level as much as it does in state and national races, far too many people simply vote on party instead of on policy.

That is a fatal mistake that won’t put the best people in office and will only continue to stunt the nation’s growth and progress.

Most people don’t even know what the individual parties stand for any longer. In fact, the parties and the candidates themselves don’t even really know what they stand for collectively any longer.

The best person — Republican or Democrat — should get the job because that is who we need to lead our nation.

He or she may be on the left side of the aisle or on the right side, but we need all of them to end up somewhere in the middle ground of compromise.