Installments of a 25yo #10
So I voted and I have some thoughts...
Everyone talks about how much we need to vote, but I did and I do not feel like my voice is heard or good about it. We need to have a candid conversation about this process, and the flaws in in because I think everyone thinks that good enough is fine, but it is not. I have felt this way for a while, but I figure I needed to vote in a few elections and see if it changes, it didn’t a lot was just confirmed.
Now disclaimer: This is not saying that you shouldn’t vote, hence why this is posted after 8pm, but what I am saying is to take a closer look at what we are doing and question the process and to exercise your right to vote or not( gasp, shocking, but we will get into that.)
Trump vs. Biden, Democratic vs. Republican, imagine my shock and horror that there are 6 other candidates, 6 OTHER CANDIDATES!!! Now I know most of us were in the same boat, and we either did not know about the other candidates or we put them out of our minds, because they won’t win so why care.
But it’s the principal. Why aren’t these candidates at the debates? Why is it so hard to find their platforms? People should be able to vote for these candidates without it being a “wasted” vote. Because we need diversity of thought and all the information possible to pick the best candidate, not just the lesser of two evils. Like that shouldn’t be something used for the presidency that is something you say when you are choosing whether to be late for work or speed a bit, not the presidency, especially when there are other options. (Also other countries have way more than two parties...soooooo I mean it is not like there is not a precedent and cannot be done. Also in some countries they have a ranking system which i feel like is a better system because it encourages more parties and thoughts..)
And speaking of the debates, what were those? Those debates more so resembled a reality tv show fight more than actual talks about the issues, like they are supposed to be. Also what is really Joe Biden’s platform? I feel like he is running off the fact that he is not Trump, but that is not good enough, where is the road map, what are you going to do to make this country better? Now , Trump is bad, yes, but he just exploited a system that was already very flawed. You ask how he became president, he knew how to win over people and exploit the system not saying that is good, but those are the facts.
A hot mess. A hot mess. Trying to find information on local offices is like trying to find rain in a desert. And I looked and there is barely anything. Again, how is anyone supposed to vote? Are we supposed to guess? Because that is what it felt like, that we were supposed to guess. I found more about their families and where they went to school instead about their positions on the issues that are actually important to their office. There is a bit of a similar problem in the big offices too, but you get some of the issues. And people would say again and again that you are supposed to vote the down ballet, but the information that is necessary to do so is not accessible. And this is not laziness, I scoured google, looking a reputable websites and found nothing or next to nothing, certainly not enough to vote on.
People always say that if you don’t vote, you cannot complain. But honestly, controversial, but not voting speaks volumes. Why aren’t people voting? Nobody has truly stopped to ask the question. People would give excuses like they are lazy or do not care etc. But if you actually ask people and actually hear the responses...people are disappointed in our system. with good reason because it has failed us so many times. Like has there been a candidate that has truly changed things for the little guy? This pandemic especially has shown the flaws in our system, especially when the government gave people 1200 dollars and just said survive, instead of coming to an agreement that people would need more than that to survive, or the fact that there are people, during a pandemic who do not have healthcare and basically have to survive, good luck. The actual hell. Basically, if you are not voting for legitimate reasons and choose to exercise your right to not vote especially during a pandemic, you should not be shamed, hot take. Because the government has proven time and time again that they simply do not care, to be quite blunt. So of course people are going to be fed up.
No one understands this. So how are we supposed to take full advantage of our rights, if we do not even understand how our vote is counted or utilized? Also by people not being able to understand this, it just makes it easier to exploit it, just saying.
The process is kinda tedious, from registration to actually voting in the booths, the whole process is created wholly inaccessible for people and god forbid you have to fill out an absentee ballot. There are better ways and ways to improve the process, such as , why isn’t it online? People say security reasons but nowadays there is a ton of encryption software amongst other things that can ensure a secure voting system. Also how are prisoners included in the counting for the amount of people in a county or political region, but cannot vote?
So vote if you want is what I am saying, but can we also open the floor to this conversation, because our voice is being suppressed in this process in a lot of ways, from the suppression of other parties to the process itself. For me, there are legitimate reasons as to why people choose not to participate. And our voice is not being used to its full potential.
Anyway, that was just on my mind after the fact, so I figure I’ll share. TLDR: I’m just disappointed with our system and the way it suppresses us through the guise of empowering us. Now, not there is nothing that could be done about it, but how we are gonna solve anything, if we don’t talk about it and sweep it under a rug constantly.
Pic credit to: Gerd Altman from Pixabay(the choice sign) and amberzen from Pixabay(vote button)
For more thoughts that may shock you, click here.
