My Two Cents

Well, well, well...
Today is the day that has been talked about, emphasized, commercialized, dramatized, and simply overdone for the past eleven months. We're in a funny place this election, too--we are faced with the possibility of re-election of our most recent president: a very controversial issue.

As my ballot sat on my desk for several weeks, I kept contemplating, continually undecided, which circle I would finally fill-in. Being my first presidential election in which I am eligible to vote, I feel excited, empowered, and frightened. What if I fill in the wrong bubble? What if I change my mind? All of this hype around elections is so much added pressure; it muffles who the candidates really are and what they are actually committing to--it's not a popularity or wealth contest, though it much appears to be one. 

I thought back on the list of past presidents our country has had--of course, the "big" ones stand out in my mind: George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, JFK--the ones that history classes seem to focus on. Then the presidents who have been in office since I've been alive crossed my mind and how our country has changed each decade, and now each century, since its creation. The roots have to be important: the foundation of our country. Then I realized how little I remember from high school history, if I ever even learned some of those things at all: what political parties were those "great", remembered presidents representing? In what standing were they when they ran for office?

I started to wonder how the people felt during the elections of these big names. Thinking back to each presidential election that I can remember, the consensus I have gained seems to reflect that neither candidate has ever been "good enough" for the role, that there is no "good" or "right" or "obvious" option for who should next lead our nation. Was this the majority during those times past as well? Or are we so uninformed in recent years that we don't even know what we want to stand for when we vote or that we don't know what the candidates stand for? It all seems jumbled into a lottery of situation-dependent questions that are "too big" to give our time to or at least try to answer. 

But four years is short enough--if the leader makes a mistake, he only has to deal with it when facing re-election, hoping for a chance to clean it up; if the leader works to clean up past messes, he will inevitably let other areas slip away, creating new messes for the next-in-line. No matter what, the president seems to be a rather unfavorable character during the entire term, even though we (the people!) are the ones who put him there!

I've noticed there's some magic behind it all: once the man is out of office, people are much more forgiving and find him more favorable--especially since now, they have a new person to gripe about. Can't anyone get it right?

It's so easy to blame another for our mistakes--that's one of the reasons that our system is so perfect for our lifestyles. We love to blame other people; we hate to be the ones responsible for our problems. We think that putting someone else into a role of high authority will divert the problem from our responsibility. Remember, however, that person is representing us! His mistakes are our mistakes. His successes are our successes. 

Know what you stand for. Know what the candidates stand for. Vote informed.



And here is my disclaimer: I don't particularly like to discuss politics; I like to read and to learn. I'm probably not the best person to be giving a rant like the above, but someone has to say it:
Election day is a responsibility and a freedom.

We, the people: can we please treat it as such just for that one day, at least? I felt sick seeing a television commercial for an Election Day Sale! at a chain store. Let's not be sold as the apathetic commercialists so much of the world already thinks we are, yeah?