The thing that frightens me most is that when my son is older he will ask me a question to which I will have no answer. Even worse, I fear he will come to me and ask me what I did during crucial moment in American history and my answer will be "Nothing."
The problem is, such a moment is upon us, and I don't know what the right thing to do is.
The problem I am facing is that both candidates endorse something to which I am morally and intellectually opposed. And so, I must decide which evil I find to be the lesser. It's unfair that to do what's right, I have to compromise my morals to do it.
The other challenge is merely my personality type. I am a non conformist. As a result, when I feel pressured into something, or I feel that the majority of the people around me are going in a certain direction, I naturally feel a tug to the opposite. And even more frustrating, the majority of my State favors one candidate only to avoid the other. And usually for stupid reasons based on dirty advertising, mudslinging, a blatant lies created to play on people fears and prejudices.
As a believer in fair play, I cry foul, and hence desire all that much more to vote for the injured party. But that's a not the right reason to vote for someone.
And so, what does one do, when a choice in placed before them, and neither answer is a good one?
There is no other third option... Not if I want to do something that matters. Which is another point of debate. The state I live in has two electoral votes, and the majority of the State will vote one way which is entirely predictable. So why vote?
Again, I think of that day, when my son asks me what I did when faced with a history altering choice. I don't want my answer to lessen me in his eyes. But I don't want to make a choice that will lessen my view of myself either.
2 comments:
Hey, Mike! I don't know what you decided to do, but I actually think non-voting or partially non-voting can be a viable option.
I know that's hard to justify in a democracy, but in many ways, I felt similarly to you. I didn't support the programs of one candidate, but I really didn't want to vote against that candidate.
So I wasn't going to vote. But my parents convinced me to at least vote on the local issues. So that's exactly what I did--I went to the booth and voted on Maine's local issues and candidates but ignored the presidential election.
In a way, like you say, it made little difference since Maine is one of those non-purple states (not exactly North Carolina which was so close, it still hasn't declared its electoral votes). A vote for McCain wouldn't have had any impact on the electoral college, and Obama didn't need my vote. Still, even under those circumstances, I think candidates need to know the popular vote (how much overall support they have); often, I will vote for the libertarian just to say I made a choice and here's where I stand. And I'm not big on people saying, "Oh, it just doesn't matter at all."
Still . . . I think there is a place for a person to say, "This is how I actually feel. I can't choose." Cause, you know, there are plenty of people out there who feel passionately one way or the other. It might actually be good to have some people say, "Hey, I can see positives and negatives on both sides. It's a wash."
I did end up voting, and I did go with my conscience, and, as predicted, my vote had no impact on how my state results, as the sate voted 82% in favor of one candidate. But, my wife and I were okay with the results of the election. So there you go. but I did absolutely consider going your way, since, as stated, it would have made no real difference.
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