Let me start out by saying that I have no intention of becoming a political commentator.
I find politics exhausting and, these days, very divisive, so talking about politics here will be an anomaly. Even so, I won’t be talking in favor or one party or another.
Indeed, the only reason I’m writing about this topic at all is because I find what I have to say bipartisan, or even nonpartisan, and I think my point can and should be applied to a great many topics.
That point being this: Voting along party lines no matter what is simply not using your brain.
In a broader context, doing or going along with anything without thinking about it is, quite literally, not using your brain.
So do not vote blue no matter who. Or red for that matter. Or yellow or green.
I recently saw a post on social media, something I’ve been consuming less and less of lately, explaining why it’s so crucial that people vote blue no matter who this November.
It listed off things like potential supreme court justices, administration officials, cabinet picks, etc. And then it listed off other, more polemical things like border control, abortion rights, and law enforcement.
Ending with stating something along the lines of, “Even if you don’t like Joe Biden, this election is too important to vote otherwise. Vote blue no matter who.”
That post was in favor of the blue team. But the red team could take that exact same post, change the word blue to red and it would be in favor of the red team. And there lies my problem with hyper-partisanship.
Saying that this election is too important sounds like a good argument, but I believe it falls apart when confronted and examined.
“I would vote third party but *insert election year here* is too important.”
If you believe that your party is always the right choice, then it won’t matter what election year it is because you won’t have to decide for yourself.
And if some partisan shill convinces you that a certain election is too important to vote third party then why would they not do the same for the next one?
There’s also the argument that we have to choose the lesser evil. And the lesser evil changes based on who you ask.
Doing this will lead us into a downward spiral that will eventually look like this:
“I don’t wanna vote for Satan but at least he’s not MegaSatan.”
Jokes aside, it’s best to vote for neither the Beast nor the Dragon.
There are other options out there. And the only reason they don’t get enough votes is because we’re… You know. Unwilling to vote for them.
And I’m not pushing for you to vote for the Libertarian party or the Green party, or even to write a candidate in. Instead my point is to simply stop and think about it before you make decisions.
You might be stuck in a bubble when you accept one team without question. We all know that the mainstream media is biased these days, even, or maybe especially, when they claim to be unbiased.
All you need to do to see this is look at the coverage of any current event by Fox News and then look at the coverage of it by CNN. If Fox News is in favor of it then it’s highly likely that CNN will be against it, and vice versa.
Instead, perhaps you should make up your own mind about the event instead of absorbing what the talking heads have to say about it.
A blue team member might express his disappointment with red team voters. Claiming that they just repeat word for word what their leaders say.
Well yes, I’m sure some of them do. But there are also members of the blue team that regurgitate the same exact things that their own leaders say.
So who’s right and who’s wrong and who’s hypocritical?
That’s up to you.
I know such a thing is not easy and I by no means am perfect about it either. But it may help to take a step back from everything before you decide.
The amount of polarization we’ve seen in the last few years won’t get us anywhere.
Calling the people on the other team, “Deplorables,” or Nazis, or communists, or thugs, or any other vitriolic term, isn’t exactly going to change their mind.
That said, IF someone actually is a Nazi or a communist or a thug, then we can safely be united against them. But throwing those words around like candy doesn’t make it true.
What it does do however, is make those words less effective when you actually meet someone like that (see: the boy who cried wolf) and it makes the accused resent you.
Instead we should reserve judgement until we’ve looked at things with a calm, dispassionate mindset.
What are this person’s policies? Do they line up with my beliefs? If someone is being accused of something, are they actually guilty of that? Or is the accuser just a deranged, radical person?
I read something that makes a very good point the other day; the general message was that in these next few months, we will be barraged with messages that try to tear us apart and convince us that the other team is bad. And that we can’t let ourselves fall for it.
That point is the reason why I’ve been referring to the Democrat and Republican parties as the blue team and red team.
“Yeah go blue/red team! The red/blue team sucks!”
“Why do they suck?”
“Well uh, because they’re the red/blue team and I’m on the blue/red team so screw them!”
Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of treating the future of our country the way we treat sports teams.
Do not allow politicians, media, intellectuals, or anyone else, convince you of otherwise.
Once you have taken a sober look at what each group stands for and you’ve found one you agree with, vote for that group.
Vote blue or red or yellow or green or whatever you genuinely think is the best choice according to your conscience.
And the only way we’ll escape this two party system that we all seem to hate so much is if we actually vote according to our consciences and not just for the party or candidate that we think is, “not as bad,” as the other one.
George Washington and John Adams both warned us against becoming too partisan and Abraham Lincoln told us that a house divided amongst itself cannot stand. Although well over a century too late, maybe it’s time we take their words to heart.
Regardless of who wins, we are ALL Americans and therefore in the same boat. And a ship will never leave the harbor if its crew is too busy fighting each other.
Thank you for reading.
