This year will be my first time voting and I was really excited at first. I am a firm believer that it is my duty, as an American citizen, to vote; our country is only democratic because people vote. Americans have always felt the strong desire to vote all the way back to colonial governance times. One of the reasons colonists felt the need to separate from England was because they weren’t given a voice in Parliament’s virtual government (virtual meaning there was no representative in a person’s district that they could address their concerns to). Colonists had the complete opposite system for about 100 years because the Mother Country didn’t pay a sliver of attention to them. This was called a direct form of government, meaning every town/county/colony had someone to represent them directly. Colonists would travel into town from the back-country, meet at the local tavern, stand in front of the candidate’s and announce who they are voting for, which was called public voice votes. Side note: I would seriously love to stand in front of today’s candidates and exclaim who I’m voting for. The favorable candidate would then buy their lovely supporter a round from the bar behind them (Crews). In fact, George Washington spent 50 pounds on alcohol for his supporters when he was running for a spot in the House of Burgesses the second time (National Constitution Center).
Fast forward to the 2016 election, and my flame for voting has almost burnt out. I own a “Vote 2016” shirt I got in D.C. that I used to wear proudly, now I can’t even bear to wear it around the house. I was a Bernie supporter and still am in the respect I agree with his platform, but who am I to vote for now that he’s out of the running? I am not for Trump whatsoever. He is my Public Enemy Figure Number One. I believe that he doesn’t really know what he’s doing and the absurd things that come out of his mouth prove that. I’ve had dozens if not hundreds of debates/intense arguments with his supporters (mainly people I know; I’m not some Internet troll that seeks his supporters out for my own pleasure). I also do not support Hillary. I want a woman to be president 100%, but to me, having a woman such as her that has so much scandal and shadiness to her reputation is not a woman that should be the first woman president. If she messes up worse than she already has, I firmly believe this country will never vote for a woman presidential candidate for at least the next century or so. I do not support the tactic of voting for the lesser evil either. This is my first election I’m voting in and it’s important to me I whole-heartedly believe in who I want to be my country’s next leader. I’m essentially making history when I cast my vote and as a history major and American studies minor, that is huge. I don’t want to say I voted for someone who may potentially corrupt the country more than it already is.
My options are basically these at this point in the election:
-I can become insane and vote for Trump, the man against everything I stand for.
-I can cast my vote for the lesser-of-two-evils, Hillary, and feel like I’m betraying my morals.
-I can write in Bernie’s name which apparently will be “Essentially voting for Trump”.
-I can do a crash course on the other popular independents running.
-Or I simply do not cast my vote in the very first election I’m eligible to vote in.
I’m at a crossroads, well, more like a five-lane highway in the middle of rush hour and all the lanes are backed up, but I know one of them is going to move faster, I just have to decide which one that is. With my experience in lovely Florida traffic, I know all of them are honestly not going to move any faster for at least another hour or so. Or one of them will, but within the next four miles, I’m slamming on the breaks again. I was however introduced to a website through a Facebook post called, Balanced Rebellion. It is a site in favor of Gary Johnson, but let’s say you did vote for the lesser-of-two-evils in your mind. If you click on “I’d Vote for Hillary to Stop Trump”, it says “If you commit to vote for Johnson, we will match you with a Republican voting for Johnson so Trump doesn't get the advantage” and vice versa if you would vote Trump over Hillary. To me, this sounds like a gap in that five-lane rush hour traffic that will lead you to freedom. This is an option that I will seriously look into before the election and hope that others just as conflicted as I will too. It’s time to rebel against the norm, just like our colonists did hundreds of years ago.
Sources: https://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Spring07/elections.cfm, http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2012/11/booze-on-election-day-was-an-american-tradition/, http://balancedrebellion.com/
