I have voted in every election since 2000** (and I do mean every election – even the odd-year, April/February ones that are about some levy or some initiative or whatever). Prior to that I voted in the even-year elections because, unfortunately, that was what everyone around me paid attention to.
“All politics are local” is evermore true, even though we get to see what happens with political policy in other places — other states, other countries — for the most part the voter is concerned with what that vote means for *them* – either in a practical sense (more/less money for schools/roads/etc.) or an emotional sense (typically expressed as not so much a vote *for* someone or something, but a vote *against* someone or something).
I have the luxury of living in a state where our ballots are mailed out well in advance of the election, along with one or more booklets explaining the initiatives and carrying the stances of the people who want to get elected (to whatever — judges, controllers, district boards, assessors, etc.). It means I do not have to take time off of work to go vote, or to find a polling location; it means I have the luxury of time at home to consider my choices and come back to it when it gets overwhelming (and it gets overwhelming). I am keenly aware that many folks in many states do not have this luxury, either because they require in-person voting, or there are added obstacles (intentional or not) like polling place closures or fear of intimidation. So, I have no room to complain.
But let me give it a shot :).
I am so breathtakingly tired of the perversion of a system I was taught in school had been all fixed and fair. Growing up on PBS and Schoolhouse Rock was a poor training for the Real World and how it’s been messed with to disenfranchise one or more sets of voters to keep specific political and spending systems in place. “No one promised fair except for Queen Victoria” is a phrase I grew up on (we’ve established I had an interesting set of parents growing up), and so I get that expecting the “free” or “fair” in “free and fair elections” is naive. It should not be. The obstacles of yesteryear of course have been removed – we no longer require “literacy tests” for voting, at least as far as I’m aware — but new ones are placed, like requiring specialized ID’s, pre-registration, confining party lines, etc. It would be admirably creative if it weren’t so damnably and deliberately vexing.
The perception that “anti-intellectualism” is “ruining the country” or “ruining the vote” is a one-sided (no pun intended) argument – people are not strictly intellectual and they will vote on their feelings, based on the information they are given and the information they are fed to entrench or mollify or exacerbate those feelings. Telling someone to vote a particular way because “you know better” is often how we get ourselves into this mess – because if someone goes to you and tells you they know better than you do, what is your initial reaction? Probably not amenable.
Do I have my opinions on how things should work? Absolutely. Do I believe my opinion should trounce yours? No. (Well I mean yes, but that would not be fair.) I would love it if you looked at the same facts I did (let us set aside, for the moment, the concept of “alternative facts”, which is … well let us set that aside) and drew the same conclusions I did. It would be very affirming for me, and would certainly fit my worldview conveniently. Humans do not work that way. I get to have my say, you get to have your say, and when the I’s and You’s all get counted up we see what the bulk of the populace wants to do. That means that some of us are going to be disappointed. We each have a democratic right to that disappointment.
All Politics Are Local – when you vote for your local representation you are voting for the things that impact you most immediately *or ameliorate things that will impact you from broader strokes* – if the Federal Government, for example, reduces support for healthcare or education, it’s quite likely someone in your State Government is going to try to do something about it. You will have the opportunity to vote for those someones, and often more frequently than your Federal Someones. If the Federal Government reduces foundational support for programs that in turn help with homelessness or maternal care, your State or County or City Government likely has programs (or could have programs) to help in spite of that. You have to vote for those people and those programs for that to work.
Depending on who you are, where you are from, how privileged you are and how privileged you perceive yourself to be, you will have different reactions to “winning” or “losing” an election — and you may be smugly victorious or apoplectically incensed — but you get to be neither if you do not vote.
Vote.
**Edit: original post said 2020. I meant 2000. Yes, I’m GenX and yes I have a problem with time.
