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FacebookI spent much of November badmouthing elections–always with the disclaimer that I don’t vote. I figured I didn’t have to expand on the issue because it had already been discussed. But when I looked back through past archives, I realized that I never directly explained why I don’t vote. I’ve made comments here and there, but I have never sat down and detailed my logical reasons as to what I’m not part of the process. So here goes.
I don’t vote because I hate the system. It’s flawed, hypocritical, and a total charade. What we call modern elections isn’t what our forefathers conceived 200 years ago. It’s a far cry from the practice Socrates and Aristotle practiced in ancient Greece. Elections are a joke and I refuse to be a part of them.
Elections have nothing to do with candidates or issues: it’s about who puts on the better ad campaign. I’ve heard numerous pundits discuss how excellent Obama’s campaign was and that’s probably why he won. Meanwhile, most experts agreed McCain’s campaign was hectic, unorganized, and a bit of joke. That’s why he lost.
Ideally, a voter listens to both candidate discuss the issues and chooses the one he feels will best do the job. But how many people out there actually watch the debates? How many people know their candidates voting history? How many people take the time to make an objective decision about their choices and truly choose someone based on their political beliefs?
In reality, most American’s don’t bother watching the debates. They make their decision based on the best sound bites the evening news chooses to replay. They don’t follow a candidate and make a decision for themselves: they allow the political experts to analyze for them. Most folks’ election knowledge is limited to whatever they see on TV.
Which brings me to my next point: people seem to forget that commercials are designed to sell you something. Whether it be a vacuum cleaner or a political candidate, commercials are designed to get to you emotionally attached to a product. In my personal opinion, political television commercials should be banned. It’ll never happen because the television stations are making way too much money selling ad time–but for the good of our nation, political commercials need to be banished. Candidates don’t use commercials to get their message out to the people: they do it to get elected. The majority of television commercials are negative: instead of discussing the benefit of candidate A, commercials preach the fallacies of candidate B. That’s not campaigning–it’s badmouthing. And when I went to school, badmouthing someone got you detention–not the presidency.
But these are just my complaints about the system–that’s not why I think it’s flawed. The reason candidates badmouth, advertise, and give prerehearsed sound bites is because…it actually works!!! It has to work. If this wasn’t how people got elected, campaign managers wouldn’t do it. No one runs a campaign based on the issues. No one tries to be fair or fun–fair and fun won’t get you elected. The American public is more captivated by the bad (Obama is a Muslim) than they are the good. The bullcrap and shenanigans we see now clearly resonates with people otherwise candidates wouldn’t do it–which is exactly the problem.
The majority of voters have no idea what they’re voting on or who they’re voting for. People are sheep. Big, stupid, overweight sheep. Someone out there didn’t vote Republican because Sarah Palin was portrayed as stupid on “SNL.” There needs to be some sorta intelligence test before allowing someone to vote. Are they voting on the issues…or voting on portrayals of candidates created by the media? It’ll never happen–but it oughta.
That is what drives me nuts. Every vote carries the same value and weight. So even if I did all the research and made a rational decision without aid from the media, Joe the Moron will make his decision based on Obama’s 24-hours, Dish Network infomercial channel. There’s more Joe the Moron’s than there are Bob the Researcher’s. It makes me sick that my vote will be overturned by some fools who make their decision based on something as one-sided and biased as a television commercial.
I don’t want to be part of a system where candidates appear on “Saturday Night Live” to earn some laughs and steal some votes. A presidential candidate makes all the stops on Letterman and Leno…only to never return after being elected? Why is it okay for our candidates to be on late-night television but not our elected officials? Because before the election they need the exposure–but if a president took the time to be on “Oprah” he’d be criticized for not focusing on his job. The candidates we elect aren’t the people we see campaigning–they are images created by focus groups in order to get elected!
Not that they say anything meaningful anyway. Even if one took the time to watch the debates, it’s not like anything said gives perspective on a candidate. Politicians don’t honestly debate opinions: the repeat careful crafted talking points–all designed to be powerful sound bites. Those moving speeches given during the campaign? Composed by some windbag with a degree in creative writing. Everything you see–from the way they talk to the clothes they wear–it was all carefully selected by advisors who are trying to get their candidate elected. The point I’m trying to make–what I’m dying to scream–is that the whole damn campaign is fake. Fake smiles. Fakes lines. Fake clothes.
Fake elections.
The whole process is ridiculously screwed up. How can I participate in something that I don’t believe in? The whole damn system is so flawed, corrupt, and fake, how can I take pride in having anything to do with it?