Beating My Head Against a Wall, For Nothing

I am used to being an invisible minority. I'm used to listening to people disparage my beliefs and my mental status and my patriotism without the slightest hesitation because they assume because of where I live and the color of my skin that I am in agreement with them.

I believe passionately in voting. I think it is one of the single most important freedoms and the most pressing duty of every American citizen eligible to do so.

I spend a lot of time talking to young adults who don't take the time to vote or educate themselves about why/how they should vote.

I get almost exclusively three excuses:

1. They never do what they say they will do. (Answer: that is because they know you didn't vote them in and you won't vote them out and until your age block starts voting in mass and regularly, they will ignore you without consequence)

2. It's too confusing. (You know the life story of every contestant on American Idol for the past 10 years and spend hours upon hours watching the show, but you can't get a list of candidates from the state election commission and read a few websites?)

3. I don't want to have to pick a party to register. (It is amazing how many people think that they HAVE to register as R or D. And that they have no clue about how primaries work.)

So, leading up to this primary, I have been in high pep rally talk, encouraging and teaching everyone who will listen to me (even knowing that statistically, if I get them started voting, they will be voting opposite my beliefs, but voting is what is important, here, not "my" side winning).

And in the past few days, the aftermath and allegations has even gotten me sick of the whole mess. People I've talked to are asking me how in the hell I can continue to cheerlead for this abysmal mess.

I know these things happen, because people have admitted it to me. I have had debates regarding the ethics of this with several people. I think your vote should be for who you think best represents your beliefs, period. But I have seen people use their primary vote as a political maneuver. I know about six staunch Republicans who told me that during the 2008 presidential primaries, they voted for Obama in the Democratic primary because they wanted him to win the nomination because they believed that a black man couldn't win in the South and it would help their party. Not their candidate, but their party, regardless of who it was.

I don't know. And it just makes me sick to know that it doesn't matter to anyone who matters. They got theirs and know the voters will just tear each other apart about it and the political system will roll on, continuing to do nothing but entrench power for itself.

The boyz say: Mommy, what does move to another state mean?