Why I Don't Care About Politics

In honor of the election, I decided to respond with my political views. For the record, I voted in the last election and out of curiosity watched the first presidential debate. In the end though it's not really a big deal to me personally who wins. Here's why:

1) The Electoral College

This is my number one pet peeve with the presidential election. Why the hell are we still following a system made in the 1700's? It made sense back then. TV didn't exist and thus candidates were exposed localy and in large cities. This made it to where groups of people more or less would vote in ignorance. Newspapers weren't as real time and there wasn't much of an associated press to speak of. Therefore, delegates were selected. These delegates paid attention to the issues and were supposed to cast their nomination on behalf of their constituents. Why is the fact this institution exists almost never brought up?

Why does this matter? Well many states will submit all their votes in favor of a particular candidate regardless of how large the state's minority vote is. Therefore, as in the Gore/Bush election a candidate can win the popular vote and lose the election.



2) I live in Texas

This makes 1 actually relevant to me. Texas will always be a Republican state for better or worse. We only assign our delegates to one candidate so therefore regardless of which way I vote my vote has basically already been assigned to the Republican party. Regardless of if I show up or not I voted Republican. And for you Texas Democrats out there the State of Texas says you voted Republican too. I'm definitely for change and would strongly support any movement to reverse this. Along the same vein, if I was in a swing state (Florida, Ohio, etc) I would be paying a lot more attention and devote a lot more time to the election. Since I don't, number 1 & 2 encompass 80% of my apathy.

3) There is not a hell of a lot of difference

In college political science I learned that regardless of which party is president similar policies get passed. This has held true for decades. Now there is a little variance here and there, but nothing that I can feel. There is always a large enough minority to ensure some concessions. In fact, our country has gotten more and more middle of the road as the years go on. Good thing? Sure…

4) I'm not a lobbyist

I don't have a lot of money and therefore I can't pay off politicians to get my way. You want to control Washington get a couple million to throw here and there and get some laws passed that directly benefit you.

5) I'm not rich or poor

One of the big issues is always taxes. This is actually an area of difference that we see between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans tend to tax everyone equally and Democrats tend to tax the rich more and the poor less. I'm not going to go into who is right or wrong, but in the end sitting in the middle class I am more or less unaffected by this. See you in $100k.

6) I don't have kids/ own my own business

This is my reasoning for not voting for the school board/city positions. I don't have a large stake for the most part in what they are hoping to accomplish.

7) I for the most part am independent

I tend to side with Republicans just for the general fact that I don't like large governments. I think we do way too much right now and spend way too much money doing it. I want to take care of myself and my family. I don't want the government doing it. That said there are people who do need help and that I support being taken care of. I'm just not one of them.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from voting. I'm just putting my opinion out there. If you are heavy into politics great, I'll always tell you my opinion and most of you know I definitely have one, but at the end of the day for me personally it doesn't really matter.