Politics

This may be one of the only posts you find in this blog related to politics. I do realize that I don’t write much about the things going on in the “real world” outside of my life. I hope one day, my daughter doesn’t read back through this and say, yeah that’s great you were pregnant, but what was going on in the world! I will say, however, that I’m pretty consistent. I don’t write much about the big world (elections, hurricanes, terrorism, the war in Iraq). However, my brother is in the Army Reserve, so I am guessing if he ever switches from his current 1 weekend a month arrangement to active status, I’ll maybe have more to say. I also don’t write much about local news (the I-270 shooter that was shooting people on our interstates, the lion loose in Gahanna, the Naked Photographer, or even the suicide off the top of my parking garage downtown last week).

Anyway, on to politics. I am not politically minded. I am 25 years old and have never voted in an election. I’m pretty sure I’m registered to vote, but being honest, I doubt I’ll vote this year. I’m glad I have the right to do so, but I also don’t really feel like I should vote if I don’t really know who I think is a better choice. With the wealth of information out there, I know I don’t have an excuse as to not being informed. My only excuse is that, well, I don’t really care much. I intentionally haven’t watched the debates because I thought they’d be boring. I usually find something else to do when the President interrupts my favorite prime time TV shows and the advertising? It just makes me mad. People take shots at each other and it seems to me that they are both just trying to say what you want to hear. People complain about taxes being raised, people complain about budget cuts to school or military or whatever. People complain about not getting enough drug benefits. What I think most people don’t stop to figure out is that we as American’s want the best of both worlds. We want good schools, good roads, a strong national defense, cheap drugs, government subsidized health care, and tax refunds. The government can’t have programs without money though, and their only real source of revenue is our taxes. If we want all this stuff, we have to pay for it, but we don’t want that. We want to keep as much money in our pockets as possible, but still have all these benefits provided to us.

In my mind there isn’t a clear cut right or wrong choice and as these are people we’re voting for, not just our position on issues, I don’t really want or enjoy getting all worked up over it, so I stay blissfully uninformed. I suppose if one of these issues one day touches my life in a way that I find meaningful and important, it could get me fired up and then I’ll decide to become educated and make a decision, until then, I don’t mind going with the majority. I don’t complain about the government after the election either, so you can’t use that if you didn’t vote don’t complain strategy with me.

I have friends who are very politically minded and are probably horrified by my comments here, but for some reason I felt like sharing. I’m glad that not everyone feels the same as I do. I’m glad there are people who really care about politics and how our government runs and making changes. I’m just not that person. And because I’m not that person, what I really wanted to say is how happy I’ll be when this election is over and we can stop seeing the stupid mud-slinging ads on TV, hearing all the different groups on the radio saying if you care about your children’s education vote “Republican” or if it’s the other education commercial “Democrat,” people on the street asking me to sign petitions to be able to vote on Gay Marriage, people calling me at home to ask for my vote. I’m just ready for it to be over.

Sorry Grace if you turn out to be a political activist. Maybe you can change my mind.