Are you in the mood to vote? Apparently democracy in the first world basically works by how the crowd is feeling at the time. It becomes more and more clear that people choose almost everything based on emotion. I think it's a fine system for buying sweaters or even cars, but it seems like kind of a lousy way to choose the leader of a nation. Unless, of course, you think the political system is doomed, in which case who smiled more or who seemed to "want" to be leader most would be a perfectly fine way to vote.
A common refrain from this election cycle seems to be something about does the candidate understand me? Are we picking a spouse? A psychologist? I don't even understand me, I certainly don't expect anyone else to. There are 311 million of us.
How about people who are like me? (Heaven help us if that number is very large.) Frankly, I'm okay right now financially (see the posting about killing the rich) but I do worry about the people living on the street. I do worry about all those people we keep throwing in prison. I worry about who I could be, if the circumstances were only slightly different.
There is also literally a whole world of other issues that matter too. When an American votes, it can mean life or death for people in other countries. I care about that. Also when we vote, we carry on our coattails people who don't or cannot vote for themselves.
Electing a leader has become (or maybe it was always this way) a monstrously expensive show. Do you know how much freaking money goes into an election cycle? Do you know what superior educations we could give our kids with that money? Enough education that they could vote based on issues instead of personalities.
Remember to vote. Remember to vote intelligently. You live in a democracy, it's your job.
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