Suffrage

Today is Election Day and also "Day of the Dead" as observed in Mexico. Probably not a coincidence. I digress... This "right" began as a fight for anyone that was not a wealthy white male landowner and was a major victory in U.S. history. However, I think our forefathers would shed a tear or two at what their victory has been morphed into. I don't think our forefathers meant for elections to take quite the mudslinging turn that it did (No, they weren't innocent back then, but nowadays is 20 times worse). They would probably roll over in their graves if they knew that "straight ticket" was an option on ballots. And they would probably die all over again to hear that many (I won't say "most" because I don't really know the numbers...) of our voters haven't researched their votes at all. How many people have you heard say, "Then there was this section about if sew-n-sew should retain his seat as county judge...I voted that he should because I haven't heard anything bad about him..."? I'm guilty of this as well. I also hate how "Educated non-voter" is not a choice. If you don't vote, you are the devil. If you vote, you did your civic service, even if you have no idea who or what you voted for. If you wear your "I voted" sticker, you get applauded everywhere you go. Why? You don't know me. I may have just closed my eyes on the ballot or just voted for the same people my parents or friends told me to. It's not just elections that irk me, it's politics in general. Very rarely is there a candidate that has the same exact stance on issues as you do, yet you always have to vote. Most of the time people are voting for "the lesser evil". Really? If that is the drive behind your vote, why don't you just sleep in on election day? If evil is evil is evil, then how can you feel good about yourself for voting for ANY type of evil? The 2 Party system is so narrow-minded. There are too many issues out there to evenly split into 2 groups. Now, most issues are pretty easily split - Abortion (Pro-choice or Pro-life), Gay Marriage (Against or For), Universal Healthcare (Against or For), etc. But then you get grey areas on some...if abortion was completely outlawed, could you look a rape victim or a victim of incest in the eyes and tell her that by law she must carry her rapist's child for 9 months? Or how do you tell a Native American with free healthcare that their own tribe pays for with their own money that they will now have to pay the "white man" and go to other doctors now? I think these grey areas should convey a need for more than 2 parties in the U.S. They RARELY are black-and-white, clear-as-day, cut-and-dry issues with no middle ground. It's just life. I think we need a better representation of life in our political skeleton.

Now, to clear up any assumptions you may have just made about me, I DID actually get out and vote today. UNEDUCATED. That's right, I voted straight ticket for my party when I could. I kept all the sew-n-sews in the positions. I voted for the propositions based upon someone else's research (Well, except for one of the questions) and I winged the county question because I didn't even know there was going to be one. And guess what...I actually feel fairly badly about it. I wish I wouldn't have even voted. Don't worry, I will NOT do this ever again. I will either educate myself or not vote. But hey, everyone that sees me today will compliment me on my "I voted" sticker because I did the "right" thing. Right?

-Mrs. Kreilaus