Oregon voters had a terrific opportunity to choose their governor this year — but that chance will be ruined if those who are elected don’t make an effort to change the political paradigm and discard lunatic-fringe ideology.

As this editorial was being written, the ballots still had not been counted in the 2022 general election, so the outcome remained unknown.

But we do know that now, more than ever, those elected at any post in this nation and this state must work to bring the ship of state off its current course and back toward a middle-of-the-road way of doing political business. For all of the gunpowder speeches spilled across the airways and in print, what most Americans want is for the trains, so to speak, to run on time.

While sitting in the bleachers and watching those who worship either the far left or far right delivers a certain amount of entertainment — and acts like a salve to the disengaged and the lunatic fringe — it is hardly a substitute for good government.

Searching for “lost votes” or digging up baseless — and false — 2020 election conspiracy theories can seem interesting, up to a point, but all it does is create more angst and divert attention away from real issues that need to be solved.

For example, Oregon faces a growing humanitarian crisis regarding the homeless. At the same time, relaxed drug laws are adding to the problem. Those are just two issues that need attention by lawmakers — and whoever is elected as governor — immediately.

America has never been at a loss for bad government and those who advocate a weird kind of mob rule, but our democracy is designed to be flexible with checks and balances that ensure we can continue to function and prosper.

When someone decides to force their way of thinking on everyone else at the point of a gun or a knife or to form into a mob and storm the Capitol, people stop listening.

The nation, the state, must get back to the middle road. We alone as a nation stand as a beacon of freedom for the rest of the world; we alone set an example of how democracy can function.

Whether voters choose Christine Drazan, Tina Kotek or Betsy Johnson as the next governor, all three should know that their responsibility now is to push state politics to the center. Blindly following the dogma of the far right or the far left will only help a minority of people and leave those in the middle — that silent majority — out on a limb.