I'm not a political person. I don't enjoy the process or the endless cycle of agenda-driven decision making. I rarely engage in discussion about it, because I generally don't believe most people, myself included in many cases, know enough to speak intelligently on most matters. I also generally don't trust the public as a whole to make informed decisions. I stay away from political facebook and twitter posts, especially links to inflammatory articles, because no matter the subject, I usually find myself getting angry with the false logic used to support any given stance. I don't want to participate in a back-and-forth comment war on something that only serves to waste my time, because in the end, I realize my opinion in a given social media market is really not important. But this is my blog, and I started it because I felt that I wanted a place to say some of the things I want to say.
Today is a mid-term election day. For the first time since I turned 18, I didn't vote. And here's why: I don't believe any of my choices are the best person for the job. I believe that I would have, as I have so many times previously, voted for a candidate I felt was the lesser of two evils. I don't believe in the notion of voting along party lines - party alignment and greedy agendas have gotten us into this mess to begin with, and they're not magically going to get us out of it. Every 8-10 years, the political climate shifts from one extreme to the other, as people vote based on reactions to perceived negative issues from the previous administrations. None is any better than the other as far as I can tell, and each has left us with some kind of mess on our hands, whether that be in wars that should or shouldn't be fought, in money that should or shouldn't be spent or redistributed, in jobs that shouldn't be lost or gained, in general frustrations with the state of the nation and our future as a civilization. In the end, someone is going to get screwed over - either the person who has worked hard for his wealth and shouldn't have it taken away, or the person who can't seem to get ahead despite his best intentions and genuinely needs resources to right his path. It seems to me that the current system allows for no real winner. This is like asking me to choose mayonnaise or mustard on my sandwich. I hate mustard slightly less than I hate mayonnaise, but I don't WANT either of them.
I'm tired of Christians using the Bible to defend their stances against gay marriage and abortion, while simultaneously ignoring all of the passages where Jesus commanded his disciples to share their riches with those less fortunate. I'm tired of non-Christians taking away the fundamental rights of others in the name of political correctness when it's really just a trend toward anti-Christianity. I'm tired of mudslinging and smear campaigns put out by people who preach family values, and I'm equally tired of those same campaigns put out by people who do it only because they have no other way to defend themselves after failing miserably at the jobs we've elected them to complete. I'm tired of all of it. Is voting really the best way to fix it?
People tell me that voting is my constitutional obligation, that voting is my way to elicit change, that voting is my opportunity to have my voice heard. But I'm not so sure that choosing between two things I don't want is really doing any of those things. I don't want to have to elect someone who doesn't represent what I believe is most important in life. I want to vote for someone whom I passionately believe is the best person for the job. And today, I wonder how many people really got that opportunity. How many people out there can truly say they voted for policies and people that they seriously researched and felt were the best possible options for the future of our country, for our children and grandchildren? Because if you can't say that you voted for something you ardently believe in and support, and not just the lesser of two evils, then it seems to me that you have done a disservice to yourself and your future by propagating a system that is clearly flawed in its current state. To me, the greater statement of upholding my constitution, eliciting change, and having my voice heard is by remaining silent until there is something worthy of me speaking out. And if more people reacted this way - if voter turnout reached an all-time low with the knowledge that no one was going to elect officials they don't believe in - perhaps the system could actually change for the better. All I want is a condiment-free sandwich. I don't think that's too much to ask.
