The “historic” election of President Obama, the nation’s first black president “may cause us to fall prey to a false sense of accomplishment and self-satisfcation, and that apathy and complacency may set in.”
-Gwendolyn Grant of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City
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Do you really feel like your whole world made this dramatic change January 20? What have you done lately? You haven’t “made it” yet.
Attention! Attention!
All registered voters, you have six days to make an informed decision–a decision that could quite possibly change everything about your life as you know it. Is it really that big a decision? I don’t know. But I have a feeling that nothing is ever going to be the same again come November 4, 2008.
Election Day!
Who is it going to be? Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin? Or Senator Barack Obama and Senator Joe Biden?
It’s a tough decision and one I won’t be making. I am not registered to vote as I never had the slightest intention of voting in any election, no matter how historic or how critical the issues may be.
Yeah, I know what you might say, “You’re throwing your vote away. Every vote counts.” Lies, I tell you. The “every vote counts” campaign is a government conspiracy delivered to sway the malleable minds of sheep who are now being led to believe that their vote is actually worth something.
Get a clue.
What are you voting for? Do you really understand the candidates? Do they align with your beliefs? Or are you just voting in the same direction as your parents or your friends or your favourite celebrity? Are you voting for Obama just because he’s black? Are you voting for McCain because you don’t want a black president? Are you voting for Obama just because you don’t like McCain? Are you voting for McCain because you’re a Republican for life?
Seriously, precisely what are you voting for? Do you even really know?
I don’t and I never really have. Since I reached the age of majority, I can honestly tell you I have never really understood a single presidential election. I read the news just like everyone else. I do a little research and what I find in all the candidates is wishy-washiness and subterfuge and lies. Why would I want to vote for that? My excuse back in the day used to be: If I don’t like Old White Man A or Old White Man B, why am I voting?
I guess I can’t say that anymore. So I’ll just say I don’t like Old White Man A or Young Black Guy B. From what my limited brain can discern I am not sure either is good enough for the job. McCain gives me the creeps and Obama doesn’t seem entirely ready for this. I know he’s young and idealistic, but we need more than that. We need real leadership.
I also boycott the general way in which presidential elections are held. Everything about the general election is antiquated. The entire system needs a major overhaul before anything can ever be right.
If I ruled the world…
There would be huge changes in campaign rules. In my system no presidential candidate would be able to bad-mouth or talk trash about other candidates. They cannot have TV ads full of negative things to say about the other president. All this says to me is “Vote for me because he sucks.” This statement is a direct example of why our system is bogus. Vote for you just because the other guy is a loser? But you’re a loser too! All campaign ads will be about that specific candidate and why he deserves my vote. You are not even allowed to mention the other candidates.,
Second, campaigning would be totally anonymous. Since we are entering an era of unprecedented change: either a black president or a woman vice president is going to become reality November 4, and everyone just seems to have a big problem with this. All the racists are like, “No, no, we don’t want a nigger,” and all the misogynists are like, “Women have PMS and therefore cannot think!” We got rid of Senator Edwards because he looked gay and Senator Romney because he was Mormon. What precisely are we basing our vote on if we bring it down to such basic details?
If we campaigned anonymously you would have no idea of the physical make up of your candidate and you would vote based solely off their arguments. Oh, we would be able to hear their voices (which would give away woman, but I couldn’t think of anything else!) when they made speeches but you won’t be able to see them until the results are in. Some of you might be surprised.
If I ruled the world I would ….
Get rid of the goddamn electoral college! Never has there been a system so antiquated as this one. It served its purpose back when America was primarily agricultural. But now, Americans have cars and public transportation and internet and newspapers and mail that comes everyday. We do not need to send a representative up to the state capitol to vote our way.
America needs a popular vote. Until then a lot of our votes are just wasted.
How is that, you ask me. I broke it down to a friend like this. At my part-time job, I work in an office with 3 other people. I said, “Pretend we are a state. Three of us like McCain but you like Obama. Majority wins and this state is voting for McCain. Sorry ’bout your luck.” So how precisely did his vote count when he voted against the majority?
In the 2000 elections Bush vs. Gore, Gore actually won the popular vote but old Georgie won the electoral vote, thus he is our president. More people voted for Gore but Bush is the president? What kind of ass-backward system is this? The red state/blue state is all very nice in determining which states have a tendency towards the democrat view or the republican view but it should not determine how everyone in that state should vote.
Get rid of superdelegates. Get rid of delegates, period. Get rid of the electoral vote. Get rid of all that. It might give a chance to consider other opponents. Senator Clinton was actually leading the popular vote, but Senator Obama got the vote of the superdelegates and therefore the presidential nomination.
Let the people decide who they want. Not the politicians.
But this is just my outlook on everything. I figured that my life sucks now and it’s going to suck tomorrow and it’s going to suck November 4. It doesn’t matter to me who wins because either way they are going to be ups and there are going to be downs. President Bush is a shitty president, but I owe everything I have to him because if he hadn’t started Homeland Security I might still be working at that bank making $10 an hour. I might’ve never come up here to take the job at TSA. I might’ve never joined the Army, which, thanks to Bush, was willing to accept even me, when, 5 years ago I would have been rejected because of certain physical issues. I might’ve never gotten my Golden Ticket which has brought me such great fortunes.
Everything could have been different despite his incompetence. Whoever is president, I’ll just make the most of it like I’ve been doing all my life. I have no idea what the world was like when Clinton was president and how it’s different when Bush became president. I don’t know that if McCain or Obama becomes president life as I know it will change from my days under Bush. Somehow, I’ll just keep on doing what I do.
But for you registered voters, those of you who are going to hide up in that little privacy box and “Do You Like Me: Yes or No” on November 4, please, for the love of God, have some idea of what you’re doing.
We don’t need anymore sheep!
I will continue my brand of election coverage until the election night. I’m not here to tell you how to vote. I just want you to make an informed decision.
