I'm telling you, folks, this is big. For most of us this will be the first time we're actually able to vote in a presidential election. This is democracy at its best; this is when we get to make our voices heard by declaring who we want to represent our opinions in office. Now, the way I see it, there is only one logical choice for those of us blessed with American citizenship -- vote for no one.
Let's examine in a little more depth our choices in this election. Both candidates are career politicians enough to make our Founding Fathers roll over in their graves -- maybe even enough for them to get out and wreak massive zombie havoc on Washington before returning to their graves to roll around some more. What happened to a government comprised of regular private citizens who recognize real-life issues needing resolutions, emerge from private life to run for office to see to fixing the issues, and then return to the private world from whence they came? Instead, we're faced with a decision between a guy two generations removed from the family hardship and strife he constantly talks about having to face and a guy who would be working at McDonald's if it weren't for his dad and his dad's buddies.
Let me try to be a tad more specific about these characters based on what I, the average citizen with perhaps a slightly below-average level of political ignorance, have seen and heard. For starters, my summer peaked in excitement when I got to watch Al Gore on Oprah and you think you had a great summer! I do have to admit, in a "casual" conversation he's less wooden then Jay Leno makes him out to be, but that doesn't keep him from spewing the same meaningless rhetoric wherever he goes.
This was supposed to be a candid interview in which the leading candidate answered real questions from real voters. Instead, we learned that Al Gore believes the biggest problem America faces is its lack of meaning and direction. Not healthcare, not education, nothing at all applicable to the real world. When was the last time you heard someone say, "I don't think I can go on, America's just not all it could be!"? When asked a more personal question about what gets him going, Gore said what makes him most excited is loving his family, and when asked about his greatest fear, he responded by saying "the fear that I'll forget to love my family as much as I should amidst all my work." Let me ask you psych majors out there if that fear has a more scientific name or if it can just be called I-better-say-how-important-my-family-is-over-and-over-or-else-I'll-lose phobia.
But his senseless vagaries didn't end there. When asked what the president can do to help real people and directly benefit the lives of normal Americans, Gore responded by saying something along the lines of "I believe the president has three responsibilities: one, to set a vision for the country; two, to set goals that will help achieve the vision; and three, establish values on which the vision must be based." How does that directly benefit one single person's life? Do you think he even thinks about what he's saying anymore? He's a robot with the same scripted answer to any number of different questions, playing it safe so he doesn't say anything that will jeopardize his lead in the polls. Nothing he says has actual meaning.
And I'm not about to say that George W. Bush is any different -- I just haven't seen that episode of Oprah yet. At least he earns my respect by spouting obscenities, obviously indicating he isn't just playing it safe by talking like a robot and actually says it like it is. Of course, in saying it like it is we get example after example of insight into his intellectual impotence. Gore's responses are so perfectly scripted at this point that Bush would fail miserably in any debate, causing him to scurry about trying to change the rules so as few people as possible actually see how stupid he is on TV.
But neither man can be blamed for the state of affairs. Ever since I've been politically cognizant, candidates have said the same things and voter apathy has increased. It's certainly an ugly trend.
Moreover, both men are tied down into representing such contradictory, diverse party platforms that neither could say with conviction anything that their party actually stands for. On one side are the Democrats, endlessly taking credit for an economy that, if it were solely up to them, would look more like Russia's, and endlessly earning applause for their talk of tax cuts even while being die-hard supporters of heavy taxation. Meanwhile, the Republicans are pro-life and pro-capital punishment; they are fiercely anti-abortion while proclaiming how they want government to be less involved in people's personal decisions; and, in being pro-life, they want every conceived embryo to be born, but want no responsibility for helping those children when they enter a world of poverty.
So whatever happens, one of these hypocritical, confused, robotic, out-of-touch candidates will earn the highest office in the country. Neither of them could help you in your daily life or knows anything about real issues people face, but they are both experts in the game of politics, and will say or do anything to get you to think they can help you. So one of them will win and continue the same troubling pattern. A vote for one of them is simply sanctioning this behavior. With luck, eventually the government and the media will understand that declining voter turnout has more to do with the candidates than the voters.
So if you don't vote you are making a statement -- you won't tolerate your elected officials playing games with an institution designed to help you. Everyone seems to be so distraught over the ever-increasing level of voter apathy, but if we consistently have to decide between candidates like these, why shouldn't we be apathetic? Maybe voter turnout would be more impressive if we had candidates that piqued our interest, touched on issues we feel strongly about, and had personalities that actually made us want to vote for them. But until we get them, make your citizenship count -- when you enter the booth on that Tuesday in November, proudly take the time and effort necessary not to vote for anyone. America needs you.
