Why Bother?

The last debate is finally over. The audience has gone home, the press has put both their papers and themselves to bed, the rabid supporters of either candidate have retreated (for now) back to their caves to immerse themselves in "news" and blogs that only support their favorite candidate (like this one). And after all of the hype, after all of the newspeople have had their say as to who won or lost, after all of the pundits have had a chance to dissect what each candidate had to say, one incontrovertible fact has become absolutely clear:

Barack Obama was wearing a much nicer suit than John McCain.

And, sadly, that’s about all that is absolutely clear.

I am too damn old to believe that what the candidates say now will have much of anything to do with how they’ll act once they actually get into office. The history of politics in America is a sad history of broken promises and unfulfilled expectations. Sure, their intentions may have been good, maybe even the best, but what is that but a white stripe down the center of the road to Hell?

Am I being cynical? You’re damned right I am. After more than thirty years of participating in the electoral process, I think I’ve earned the right to be a bit cynical. I’ve seen too many politicians succeed in getting elected only to fail in office. Worse, I’ve become weary listening to people who have failed dismally trying to spin their failures into shining examples of their character and tenacity in the face of adversity. And when they can’t spin the facts, they lie about them. And I do not expect this election to be any better.

So why am I still doing this, still listening to campaign speeches despite the implicit dishonesty of them, still voting for my best choice for office despite knowing that I’ll ultimately be disappointed, still choosing a candidate based on his values when all I have to go on isn’t much more than what that candidate says their values are?

Because it’s too bloody important not to.

Look, I know I’ll be disappointed. I know that I’m setting myself up for a major letdown. And I know that, as bitterly disappointed as I’ll be if Candidate A wins, I’ll be even more disappointed by Candidate B’s performance if I vote for him and he falls flat on his face. And I know that there’s always a chance that somehow one candidate or the other may find a way to steal the election, some electoral trickery to make my exercise of choice meaningless. (After all, it’s happened before.)

The office of President of the United States is too damn important to not try to exercise my freedom of choice, no matter how feeble it may be. Regardless of what we (as individuals) do, if we (as a group) don’t exercise our right to choose then that choice will be taken away from us. A new leader will be chosen; do you want to at least try to have a say in that selection or are you content to have someone simply tell you who it will be?

I have a friend who is fond of quoting the band Rush; I’m going to do it myself (even though I don’t really care for Rush):

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

Ultimately, it’s not as important how we vote as it is that we vote.

The Blues Viking

The opinions here expressed are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.