Election time is almost among us. For some areas of the country, it has already begun. This is my first presidential election that I will have the honor of participating in and I would like to share my humble opinion on the topic. Have any of you ever noticed that the American political system is extremely hypocritical?

One could make a solid argument and go as far as saying that all of humanity is hypocritical, but for today: let's just stick to politics. The presidential election as a whole is an incredible event. We see more and more every year that our votes truly do not matter. How could I say such a thing, considering elections are won by most popular vote, right? Well, not really, here's why: more and more we can see that there are aspects of the electoral system that are inherently flawed. One of the most notable examples in recent years would be the Bush v. Gore election back in the early 2000's. There was a fowl up in counting votes in Bush's brother's state of Florida, and Bush ends up beating Gore because of the vote. Now, I am not putting on a tin foil hat or anything, but that does seem a bit curious.

Fast forward to this election; Senator Bernie Sanders is running against Hillary Clinton. Sanders is winning in popular vote in many areas of the country, yet, Hillary won by a landslide in super-delegate votes. Then, after the major vote at the Democratic National Convention, emails are leaked between the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's Campaign showing plots and actions to keep Sanders from winning the primaries. A good man who is always on the right side of history, even when it is perceived at the time to be wrong, was kept out of winning because of political favors and corruption. So I will ask again, do you think our votes truly matter?

Let's now move to the political parties as a whole: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Something I always found curious was the great debate of abortion. When looking at the general consensus of both parties, it seems evident that one tends to lean as a whole on the side of personal liberties and freedom; meanwhile the other side tends to lean on the side of greater restriction. The Democrats tend to pass strict laws on its citizens--we can see this with gun control--while the Republicans cry for personal freedom within the constitution. Knowing that, when discussing abortion, Republicans do not wish to grant people with the personal freedom of choice, while the Democrats desire freedom of choice. If this is not hypocritical then I do not know what is. Something that is also hypocritical about this subject is the Republican party's reasoning as to why they disagree with abortion. In general, Republicans are seen as more religious and are proud of that fact. There is nothing wrong with being religious; if you are a part of a party which prides itself on standing by the Constitution, then why are you allowing personal religious beliefs to dictate law? We live in a country that is supposed to keep the church and state separate, that was an idea expressed by our founding fathers.

At the end of the day, we need to realize that we are losing control of our government. Maybe it has always been this way, or maybe this level of corruption and foul play is new. Regardless, this is not what our ancestors fought for, and this is not the country that our leaders say it is.