Well, March Madness is finally over. And just like every other year, none of my teams made it to the Final Four.

Unless it’s Creighton or Nebraska, I don’t follow college basketball all that closely.

At bracket time, I’m not really informed. If I pick any team that’s a five seed or lower, I’ll make my choice based on a hunch or if I like the name.

And just like every other year, Gonzaga has let me down.

We are less than a month away from the primary election and it’s time to decide who to vote for. And just like my March Madness picks, when it comes to some of the down-ballot races, I make my choice based on a hunch or if I like the name.

But I can’t afford to do that anymore.

In many cases in the past, I’d vote for a person based on nothing more than if I recognized the name from some yard sign or a direct mail piece.

I always assumed that any person running for an office knew what they were doing and that they would be a good public servant. I assumed that even if they weren’t that qualified, they couldn’t do much harm.

But I don’t assume that’s the case anymore.

Traditionally, primary elections have low voter turnout. Low voter turnout means the candidates who can motivate their people to get off the couch have the best chance to win. And in most cases, the people who are most motivated to get off the couch are extremists.

If the extremists are nominated, whether it’s left or right, when the general election comes around, the only choices the voter has are one extreme or the other.

And that’s a large part of the problem we have in America today. The extremists get elected and see no need to work with people across the aisle.

That’s why we can’t afford to vote for people based on a hunch or if we like their name. Extremists elected in down-ballot races can do a lot of harm.

When you cast your ballot for the school board, are you certain that person doesn’t want to ban books or allow transgender students to play in sports?

Or when you vote for the Secretary of State nominee, are you 100% certain that person isn’t an election denier? Is the county sheriff going to work with or obstruct ICE agents?

You can bet the extremist voters know that.

Now, don’t get me wrong. With very few exceptions, I respect any person who puts their hat in the ring for public office. I believe that anyone who asks to be nominated for public office thinks that their views are the best views.

But if their views lean too much to the far left or right, bad things can happen.

Around 2015, some friends and I started an organization called the Free Speech Society. The concept of this organization was to have people from both sides of the political spectrum get together and talk in a civilized manner to try to find some common ground.

This was around the time of the rise of Donald Trump and MAGA. Political discourse was getting angry and loud. We wanted to tone down the rhetoric and meet for breakfast to try to get people to talk to, and not shout at, someone who thought differently from them.

And for a while, it worked. We were getting the far left and the far right in the same room. But gradually, we found that the extremists didn’t want to find common ground.

The group is still around but the extremists are gone. You can find out more about us on the Free Speech Society Facebook page.

This country works best when both sides work together to solve problems not create them.

As we approach the May primary, I hope the voters will be educated voters and consider candidates who lean center right or center left and not to either extreme.

By making my March Madness picks based on their name or a hunch I’m only out $10. The wrong picks can’t do much harm.

The same isn’t true about making the wrong pick in down-ballot elections.

I won’t study the teams next spring.

But I will study the candidates this spring and hope I have better luck than I did in March.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.