Tag Archives: Elections

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Here’s a Ballot, Now What?

Originally today’s blog was going to be a random rant of whatever happened to be on my mind. Just like any other time a writer starts, they change their direction entirely. I became so passionate about one of my rants, that I decided to dedicate today to that instead.

Tomorrow is election day. I’m not going to give a speech about “people died for us to have this right”. I don’t believe in guilting people into voting. I don’t even believe in it myself. People didn’t die for the right for politicians to lie to us and make us overpay them. I’d like politicians to make minimum wage and not getting paid when they aren’t working like the rest of us. I’d also love them to be stuck with the same crappy choices for healthcare that the American people get. Maybe if we take away the riches and benefits, we’d get people in office that actually care about the people they’re sent to represent. I’d also like it if every law they pass also affected them. Then maybe they’d consider what they are passing before they decide to take the bribes to pass it. Also, I’d like to make it that people had to pass a general current event and civics test before they get to vote. It may be unconstitutional, but at least people who will vote have a general idea of what they are voting for and not race, party affiliation and good looks. I’m also offended that the old guy from Face the Nation (he doesn’t deserve a name, don’t bother telling me) for his commentary. Thankfully you can get access to transcripts online so I don’t misquote him:

“And here’s a confession. Sometimes voting against someone I don’t like is more fun than voting for someone I do like.And here’s the best thing of all. You can vote for or against someone for the best of reasons, the wrong reasons, or no reason at all. It is your vote, and you can do with it as you choose. In fact, you can waste it if you like.”

Really? Not that anyone probably takes his show anymore seriously than they do Fox & Friends, but he has the power of the masses. And he uses it for that? He could inspire people to make a change in the political times! He could tell the viewers, “listen, we need to vote on the issues not the person” or “you need to vote for someone who shares your same view of the country and how you want it to grow”. No, he says “waste your vote if you’d like, just do it”. He could’ve easily had said in one sentence “vote for Batman for president because Superman is from another planet and isn’t technically eligible for presidency”. This actually disgusted me. This disgusted me almost as much as most politicians do.

Growing up, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I was also smart enough to realize that writers are starving artists and you needed a job to fund the dream. For a long time, I decided journalism would be the way to go. I started writing for my middle school newspaper and I hit a moment of realization: I was far to opinionated to be a real journalist. I could be an Op-Ed columnist, and did well with that. The teacher was proud of me when I went to her and said “it would be against journalistic integrity for me to write news, I can’t do it without being biased”. Shortly after, I decided journalism probably wasn’t the right place for me because it went against my morals. Watching news today makes me wonder what makes me different from every other person that decides to actually go ahead with that career path but instead of reporting news, they report their own version of the news. It really does sicken me. There should be a political party named “The Cynic Party”, I would jump the Democrat label for that.

The point is that these people (Fox News, Face the Nation, etc.) all are able to reach people and inspire them for good. They could tell people that issues are more important than white dry erase boards and half facts. They could actually give the viewers a full story, the true full honest story, so when we go into that poll booth we can make informed decisions that suit us and our visions for our ideal country. Instead, they tell us “this guy’s a Kenyan Muslim” and “this guy is a corrupt Mormon business man” or “does it really matter, just close your eyes and make your pencil mark anywhere”. Now we get to go blind into an election and pray we come out in one piece. I’m not sure who’s more to blame for this, the politicians or our “newscasters”.

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In The Name Of Politics

Normally I save Friday’s for the occasion of discussing matters that matter to teen and single mothers. I debated with myself of posting something about politics, let alone on a day I specifically set aside for a certain audience. It didn’t take me long to decide that while I normally try to keep politics out of this blog, that this election matters to all people. It affects single and teen mothers as much as it does anyone else. So I decided to go for it.

This will be my first year voting… ever. I don’t believe in voting. I don’t believe my one vote matters, because in the grand scheme of an electoral college it really doesn’t. An election has never been decided based on one vote, and I know the argument of if there are 100 people just like me felt the same way, that’s 100 people who didn’t vote and cost an election. Last I checked, I didn’t think anyone lost by 100 votes either. It’s not our fault for not voting really; I blame the politicians we’re forced to choose from. They’re what’s wrong with the system by not giving people a reason to vote for them. This year seems like a good year to finally do it, though I admit my main reasoning is because of my state’s Senatorial race.

I don’t like Elizabeth Warren. I don’t like the idea of her. I decided a while back that I liked Scott Brown, and my reasoning might be silly but I believe in it and stand by it. My most hated thing about politics is that everything seems based around political parties. I hate that, I want to vote for a person because of what they stand for not what letter is next to their name. I think that they should omit the placing the political party next to a person’s name on the ballot to make it so people can’t go in their uninformed, see a (R) or (D) and just place a check there. (Though admittedly, I’m all for making people pass a test on basic current event knowledge to vote, because really the election could come down to someone who knows more about Jersey Shore than they do about anything going on in the world today.)  Why do I like Scott Brown? I like that though he’s pro-life, he doesn’t think it’s his business to be in mine. I like that even though he believe marriage should be between a man and a woman, he doesn’t think it’s his business to be in either. I like that he doesn’t care about who writes a bill, he’ll vote how he feels would be benefit our state, not because it’s a Republican bill. I appreciate someone who thinks for himself.

If only the presidential race was as clean-cut for me. On on hand, I’m not certain about Obama and how he can fix things. On another hand, I’m morally opposed to Romney’s fundamental values especially the ones I think he’s going to force upon us. Yes, I think there are too many people who are getting free government money and that needs to end. I also think that the government has no place in my ovaries or someone’s bedroom. I don’t think that you can rant about Obama forcing too much government on us and in the same breath say Romney is a great person for wanting to make government in charge of who someone marries and what a woman does with her body. If you want the government out of what healthcare decisions you make, make sure the government stays out of other private business as well. I can’t bring myself to vote either way, though I know I have to. If only there was a super candidate that combines the few good things about either of these choices and omits the absolutely terrible ones, I wouldn’t have to wonder who to choose.

Eventually I have to make the choice, as does anyone else who will vote. You can’t count on the cable news channels to help you, they have their own agendas they want to force upon you. I want to be able to make a proper and informed decision before this election, and I’m not entirely sure the tools to make that informed decision are available to me. Especially considering both candidates change their beliefs depending on the audience in front of them. Though, I should be more easy on them because it’s not like any president ever really sticks to their campaign agendas. In fact, how do you know a politician is lying to you? You know the rest of that joke, you don’t need me to finish it. When you step into that booth next month, I hope you have the knowledge and the ideals to make a good choice for you. Don’t let anyone try to convince you to vote against your beliefs. Your beliefs are the one thing no one can take from you.