Vote or Die!

Your vote doesn't matter. Flat out, hands down your vote will not dictate or even sway the outcome of one of the most important presidential elections of our time. I have to pause now and make sure one of P. Diddy's goons isn't in some shadow preparing to kill me, but I probably wouldn't see it coming anyway so what the hell let’s continue. Now saying my vote and your vote doesn't matter completely goes against everything I have been taught and raised to believe my whole life as a God fearing patriotic American. However, I look at Florida in 2004, super delegates, the Electoral College doing as they please and multimillion dollar advertising campaigns and I loose hope in the process. It seems no different to me than elementary school student council elections were the outcome is clearly and ultimately determined by which candidate’s mother bakes brownies for the whole class the morning of the election. Issues do not matter, as much as we cling to them, it is a race of image; whose groomers can create the candidate squeaky clean and pure enough to win over the key demographics in the key states. Do you think Obama and McCain have enough time to think beyond those demographics? It is not something I blame any political candidate for but it ultimately begs me to ask why, if I am just an 18-25 year old white male voter, why does my vote matter? Furthermore, as the last 5 years of my voting record seem to tell me; regardless of my vote or anyone else’s elected officials still, no matter how polished and genuine they seem to be, wind up in Washington. Do you think politicians have time and energy to devote to Joe Schmo when being pushed and pulled by the biased crooked cutthroat politics of their party? Even more so when you factor in the army of lobbyists pulling at their pockets; promising to make them richer, keep them in power longer, and maintain their political legacy. Politics isn't my scene but if I were put in that position it would seem quite impossible to focus on the little people who played small roles in placing me in office. The system is corrupt and we buy into it because it is the only one we know and it has worked fairly well for the past 200 plus years. I know my vote won't amount to much but come Election Day I'm still going to cast a ballot. But I'll tell you what I won't do; I won't hold my breath waiting for this 'change' that both candidates are promising over every media outlet every single day. What I will do is participate in the process, march happily to the voting booth and do my part to keep this flawed system from drowning in its own filth. When we do get a new leader, life will stay the same and people will continue their day to day lives and this humble writer will close his heart to politics for fear of being once again disappointed and hoodwinked by a man in a sharp suit. I suggest you do the same.