Why do people vote at all?

Red Roach Blog: The wrong question: "No sir, the question is why do people vote at all."

After reading one of Joe's recent posts I felt it necessary to reply. I vote because I still hope things can improve in this country (or at least slow down how quickly they go downhill).

I'm a cynical optimist. I believe we (both humanity and America) can do better (even though we rarely do). I have seen first hand how things have changed in our country since 2000----and there are very few changes that have been good ones. These are some of the negative changes that I have seen that I blame Bush for:

1. As a teacher I have seen an increase in wasteful, pointless testing. If you though school was stifling to creativity when you were a child, you should check things out now. We are creating a nation of programmed robots.

2. Lack of jobs. I've been looking for jobs in libraries and schools for over a year---they aren't out there. Why? Bush has trashed the economy creating shortfalls for federal, state, and local governments.

3. Corporate scandals. You think the Enron mess just affected a few greedy executives in Texas? Think again. My mother worked for a manufacturing company that produced electrical transformers. When Enron went belly up because of their greed, it sucked money away from almost every single electrical utility in the United States. Electrical utilities had to stop buying new equipment (including transformers) which caused work to slow down at my mom's employer, which caused them to lay off (permanently) over 400 workers. Oh, and also remember the massive blackout in the United States last year---also a result of electric utilities trying to short cut repairs and maintence to make up for budget shortfalls.

4. Big brother watching over your back. The FBI tried to seize the library records of a patron at my local library branch. They didn't even bother to get a subpoena before attempting this-they certainly wouldn't want to leave a paper trail of their actions. I personally enjoy being able to read and write what I want.

5. Medical care. I've seen the cost of my medical care skyrocket (insurance and prescriptions), while the quality of care has definitely gone down. At one point last year I was paying over $300.00 a month between insurance and prescriptions. These rising costs have not improved my care one little bit. The insurance industry is a complete mess. Today I actually recieved a bill in the mail for a chest x-ray that I've never had from a doctor I've never seen in a state where I haven't been in over a year. The system is screwed up. It is screwed up to the point where I had to change doctors because my last doctor refused to accept any insurance anymore. I truthfully don't blame the doctor---what the hell does paperwork have to do with medical care? Can I blame that directly on Bush? Probably not, but I can blame it on the Republicans for refusing any sort of reform or change in our medical system.

I'm sure I could think of some more examples...but all this is going to do is get me all excited and pissed off.

My point is, I vote because I know we can do better. Is John Kerry the perfect candidate? No he isn't---but he is a lot better than the alternative of Bush.

I'm sure some of you are saying, if you don't think Kerry is the best candidate why don't you vote for Nader or some other 3rd party candidate. Its not the way our political system works---the founding fathers rigged it to work as a 2 party system. I could see voting for a 3rd party candidate if I truly believe both major candidates are the same (and it didn't matter which of the two were elected)---but they clearly aren't the same. And that is why I will be voting for John Kerry in November.