Vote to Improve Life, Not to Anger Opponents

Unfortunately, I and many others seem to be living a new historical event daily. As an American citizen, I’ve seen two assassination attempts on one of our presidential candidates, I watch daily as my country supports the genocide of countless Palestinians by providing the Israeli government endless weapons, I’ve seen historic climate catastrophes such as hurricanes, wildfires, and tornadoes, I watched women’s rights and healthcare get ripped away by the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, and I’ve seen the oldest president in American history step down from his campaign because of an obvious cognitive breakdown on national television during a presidential debate.

My blog isn’t about politics, but unfortunately everything I do seems to make some kind of political statement in my real life and online. I felt the need to get something off my chest as I experience the breakdown of my country in real time; I am disappointed in the gamification of American politics and what seems like our collective inability to vote based on issues and policies over triggering and angering the opposite side.

I am an academic instructor by profession, and I see this level of thinking among the youth as well as the elderly: people seem wired to vote or act in a way that hurts them, so long as it hurts the other side more. The goal of many voters seems to be to rile up their opposition, rather than to vote in a way that could actually improve their lives.

How distant can you be from a fellow human that you are willing to destroy your own peace of mind and means of survival just so that a group of people you don’t even know can suffer worse hardships? It just boggles my mind. We are living Mahatma Gandhi’s observation that, “An eye for an eye makes the world goes blind.”

American politics lacks nuance and critical thinking often times from both the populous and our leaders. I’m not going to sit here and say that politicians must be perfect entities that meet the expectations and goals of every constituent in the nation. Nor am I expecting them to be perfect entities. But, what I do want and expect is political competency to the best of their ability—governance that protects citizens. Governance that reduces regulation and ignores expertise sickens the quality of everyday things we take for granted: clean water, safe food, the ability to vote, reproductive rights, and countless other privileges we ignore.

Of course a myriad of complicated events got us to this point (historians and analysts can run down all of the theories), but still, how did we get to the point where people want to put immigrants in concentration camps? Praise Hitler and the Nazis? Murder political opponents? Loosen child labor laws? Prevent no fault divorce? Defund education even further? Believe that governments have weather altering technology? As I type this all down, I feel insane just recalling the egregious things some of our politicians have said!

I just hope that rather than vote out of disgust for another side, we vote based on policies that would improve life for everyone. We should vote to improve our healthcare systems, environmental protections, and civil rights. At the end of the day, that’s all we really want: an opportunity to live our lives to the fullest. I have more faith in the potential Harris-Walz administration keeping us grounded.

Just a rant. Now I’m done.