Knock the Vote

It’s mid-February, a time of year typically characterized by chilly weather and the red glint of St. Valentines Day.  On a college campus in the wake of the 2008 Presidential Primaries, though, these are negligible conditions.  The political climate here is hot, and I’ve only seen red when it’s accompanied by white and blue.  All I’m trying to say is that my school, presumably like all others, has gotten really into this election.  And like anywhere else, no two students are very like-minded on the matter. 

Walk through the campus plaza on a given afternoon and you’ll be given a million different sides of the story: vote for him, vote for her, vote for the other him, vote for the old guy.  At least Ron Paul’s people tried not to impose less than the others, asking only that I YouTube their candidate.  Considerate, except I still use a 56K Modem; that’s still asking a lot of me.  

As an impressionable freshman just shy of 230 months old, I feel pressure from all sides.  People more verbally affrontive but not necessarily more informed than me are trying to push my hand in all sorts of directions.  It’s a time that calls for self-inquiry.  Who do I want to lead my country?  Should I even belong to a major party?    My generation has been raised on the “none of the above” option, so it’s not my nature to feel satisfied with choice A or choice B.  That is, until I found out that only members of a major parties can vote in primaries. 

So I ultimately compromised my round views to fit into a square party’s peg, but I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it. Without enthusiasm, it seemed a feat to brave the long line at my polling station.  Fortunately the mail-in-ballot I had acquired earlier allowed me to bypass the queue.  I was surprised that most of the other people turned out the old-fashioned way, waiting for hours on end to cast their vote on the spot.  We’ve all heard about poorly informed political decisions, but these were poorly informed methods of getting the piece of paper on which they could make these political decisions. 

It is important to note that the ballot wasn’t all about choosing a new president; in fact, there were three additional legislative propositions for my state to vote on.  I answered “no” to all of them without reading descriptions, because my parents didn’t raise me to be a “yes man.”  And isn’t that the sort of logic that has driven the system for years?  Not a rhetorical question, I seriously want too know if my reasoning seems too faulty. 

Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.

-John the Intern

www.DailyMe.com