I can't believe it took me this long to process what happened. But it makes sense that I had to wait about eight hours, as I probably couldn't form words at what I was witnessing.
It is said that statistically, more people vote for American Idol than they do for any political election. This has been backed with hard numbers released by the phone companies and polling stations, as well as every other news reporter during the height of the show's popularity. They even made a movie based around this idea called American Dreams.
While I blindly believed this statistic, I never really felt the irony about it until last night.
My mom got up to vote, but not in the local midterm elections for the state, but for Dancing with the Stars. She was so enthusiastic it was like she was playing a game she couldn't lose. Keep in mind that neither of my parents are registered to vote in local or national elections due to a superstition of theirs. (The belief is that once they register to vote, they will have to move. It's been proved twice in my lifetime.)
The entire time I was sitting here at the computer, I heard her trying to redial and get her vote in thinking how ironic it is that a non-registered US Citizen, a minority no less, is voting for someone she wants to win a television show instead of the important issues at hand.
Me? The negative mud-slinging ads drove me away from registering again this time around, as they did last year and the year before that and the year before that. It seems to get worse every year to the point where I need an outside source to tell me where everyone stands on the issues that matter. Honestly, I don't care about their moral character or what side of the House or Senate floor they will be sitting on. I want to know what their undeclared opinions are, and I would like to hear it from their own mouths in their own ads that they've approved.
1 comment:
I used to let mudslinging drive me away from voting. It's overwhelming and depressing. But then that scandal happened with Florida and Bush declared himself the winner before the recounts were in and it turns out that only a handful of votes would have made a difference after all... I felt ashamed, and have voted ever since.
The frustration you feel with more Americans voting for those stupid TV contests than for political office is proof that you, Jonathan Abarqez, have a personal responsibility to vote. You're too smart to be one of the dumbasses who refuses to sieze what little tiny bit of power we have as American citizens. True, it's almost a farce, considering the electoral college and lobbying, ultimately our voices don't seem to make much difference. But consider other issues where we DO make a difference, like Tennessee's first ammendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. We could have used your voice the other day. We can't change the self-righteous climate of this country if people won't speak up where it counts. And the polls are one of the places where it counts.
No ride is not an excuse - there are church groups and other charities that will carpool non-driving people to the polls.
Sorry I got preachy. I barely even care about politics, really. I guess since I'm lazier than most people and I force myself to make the effort to vote, everyone else should too. I hate that the state of our country only reflects the opinions of the small percent of people who vote. And I am extremely aggravated that TN will ammend our constitution to DENY rights and more people aren't outraged by this.
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