Alright folks. Just a few months til election time. Let me set things straight. My idea of straight I'll preface. I'm just gonna assume no one is voting for Romney. I just imagine those votes come from some far-off sector of the U.S. populace that I live completely separated from. But nevertheless he will somehow get votes. So to counter them votes for a legitimate candidate need to be cast. That means you, all the young, frustrated 20-somethings with either a full or partial college education, need to vote. You don't need to vote for a Gary Johnson, he will not win no matter how hard you want a third-party candidate to.
My grandpa has an old saying, "Wish in one hand and shit in the other, and see which one you have more of". That definitely applies when it comes to elections. The media that most all of us watch like to push the idea that electing a new president will bring about great sweeping change, and that he or she will be some kind of savior, but we just need to figure out who is up to the task. While this sounds inspiring and sells ads, it is wrong. The president works within a system. This system has many components, the POTUS is only one part of this, although he is symbolically much more significant. You need to put that symbolism aside and realize that our current president has a job, and anyone who has a job knows that you can't run a company by yourself. Mr. O has not done everything you wanted him to because he cannot. He has made backroom deals and given a lot up to make progress where he can. He is an intelligent, well-intentioned, and hard-working president. He will not always make you happy, and he is not the perfect man for the job. But neither is any of the other hundred million some potential candidates. Nonetheless Barack is a good man for the job, and that is as much as you can realistically ask for.
You can vote for another candidate that better matches your views, and you may feel righteous voting authentically for the person you believe is best. But your vote is not some grand reflection of your beliefs, it is in actuality a grain of sand on a scale. And where your votes fall in aggregate will determine which way the scale tips. In this country that scale will only tip one of two ways. Think carefully about which way you want it to tip. If you truly want the best for our nation, you will put your weight on the side that actually tries and really wants to do good, even if that good gets blurred by compromises and setbacks. The other side is self-interested, and marred by silly ideas of what is right without respect to history, culture, or facts.
Don't blame the inefficiencies of our governmental system on the people who take part in it. It is a machine. An imperfect one, but only imperfect because it is of human construction. You can either add your drop of oil to this machine, you can add rust to it, or you can let it fall into disrepair by refusing to participate in its maintenance. I am begging all those of my generation who feel angry with our president for not being the messiah you hoped for to think long and hard about what will you make your future more bearable. Please help this 18th century machine stay in running order.
There used to be a sense of common good in this country, but it has been lost to cynicism over time. Please put aside your idealistic notions of a perfect world where everything goes your way, and work within the mundanity of the real world to try and make it better. There is a good reason why your brain, and not your heart, controls the functioning of your ballot-marking hand.
-Travis
P.S. I was gonna post this as my Facebook status bu then realized that it would probably be too long, and that would be stupid since one wants to read that on their feed. Thank God I figured that one out in time.
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