On Voting

Apparently, “if you don’t know who to vote for yet, you’re stupid” — and this country would be “better off without your vote anyway”. Can you believe that?

It bothers me that so many people fail to look at both sides of any given election objectively, without any preconceptions. I know; it’s difficult.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a very politically-savvy person. While I’m at it, I might as well confess that I didn’t realize how close we were to election day, and that I still hadn’t requested an absentee ballot as of October 26 (which was a Sunday, and the deadline for Pennsylvania to receive it was October 28). Driven by a moderate amount of guilt and an unexplained sense of duty, I mailed in my request on the morning of the 27th and said to the postal worker, “I need this delivered tomorrow.” It cost me $16.50, but I’d rather that than put up with everyone’s bitching and moaning: “This is your first election and you didn’t vote?!” “YOU DIDN’T VOTE? BUT WHAT IF MCCAIN WINS? IT’LL BE YOUR FAULT!” — Drum roll please… THAT’S THE LEAST OF MY WORRIES! but I digress.

I honestly don’t see what’s so awesome about either candidate. Change! Hope! A better economy! Whatever! Every political candidate follows the same format — talk, talk, talk. Hype, hype, talk, hype, talk. Haven’t you noticed? that all they’ve been doing is just that? Aren’t you the least be skeptical of how they plan on executing all those magnificent miracles they’ve been talking about? Just as you’re skeptical of the candidate you’re against, shouldn’t you be skeptical of the one that you’re for? Should I vote for Obama just to make everyone around me shut up?

Truthfully, I considered it. Then, I came across this:

“[W]e need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.”

That was Obama. On appointing justices.

Empathy? In the courtroom? In a federal courtroom? Sweetheart, I don’t think so. Don’t we have those things, uh, what are they called again… oh, right, LAWS? Whatever happened to laws? Whatever happened to Justice being blind? Whatever happened to interpreting the law impartially? Hello?

This election’s gonna be such a shit show. And you know, I might not even get my absentee ballot after all, so you’re right; you’re probably better off without my vote anyway.