I hate it when people tell me whom I should vote for. "Your vote counts," they say, as they hand me a "Vote for Bush" flyer, or a Socialist newspaper, or a "Vote Democrat 2004" bumper sticker.
My vote counts for what, another tally on your list of supporters or perhaps a brief satisfaction of pressing your views on an innocent passerby?
In a way, I find it insulting. Here I am, a student of public higher education, apparently so weak in opinion and low in intelligence that, in one minute of talking to me, or playing a thirty second commercial, or handing me a colorful little sticker, my whole perspective on life will change.
There are three major problems with this. First of all, the concept of partisan politics is illogical and weak-minded. It is an artificial separation of people, in a society, designed to brainwash the masses to the point where no one even cares anymore. Instead of looking at the individual, we look at the party. He's a Democrat; I'm a Democrat; I will vote Democrat. It's a clever trick if you really think about it: let Americans associate themselves with a group instead of investigating the characters of the individuals running. That way, unqualified individuals are put in positions of power by people who know nothing about them - people who voted for them based on the party they associate with the most, not by looking at the distinguishable qualities of the candidates which separate the good leaders from the bad.
The backlash of partisan politics is the negativity that comes with it. As the presidential election gets closer and closer, the media is filled with all kinds of propaganda. Republicans broadcast Kerry's congressional record on the radio and point out his constantly changing standpoints. Democrats feverishly remind Americans about Bush's mistakes after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Reformists criticize the election process. Constitutionalists criticize change. Libertarians criticize structure.
We have become a nation of critics who only focus on negative qualities. We have brought our standards so low that we choose whom we vote for based on how bad the other candidate is.
Which brings me right into my third point: that the government and media undermine our intelligence as students of public higher education. We are the future of America, treated as a mindless and vacant group of children. To elected officials, the only people that exist are the people who can elect them. To elected officials, we do not exist because we do not vote.
I say vote. Prove to the nation that we exist and that we are an intelligent group of people. Do not be brainwashed - think about whom you are going to vote for. Take fifteen minutes out of your day and look at the websites of all the candidates who are running for office. Look at the good qualities they will bring to our nation and vote for the one you feel is most qualified.
If you think no one is qualified, vote for no one. Go down to the voting booth, check off "Other," and write out "No One." The elected officials will know we are here; they will know we are watching, but what they won't know, is that we're smarter than they think. If they can't accept that, we'll vote for No One.
Sanam Hakim is a Collegian columnist.
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