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If you’re reading this, then you are most likely not an American, but somebody from AUBG’s broad, Southeastern European population. Still, you’re probably between the ages of 18 and 22. Your lack of interest towards national government may be the same, but for entirely different reasons. If you even read this maybe you will agree with some of these sentiments. I’m not exactly trying to rally young-voters or pretend that I have answers in regard to proper political participation. I’m not saying not to vote, either. I have never voted in any elections, student or national. The political process evokes in me and most others my age an enormous yawn. The tedium of spin, campaign news, candidate backgrounds, and banal platitudes reach levels that are so horrifyingly mind-numbing and out of touch with real feelings. It’s hard to even broach a topic which feels so hackneyed and blah. The late, great David Foster Wallace has written about this American demographic (18-35 years old), with keen insight: “It's hard to get good answers to why Young Voters are so uninterested in politics. This is probably because it's next to impossible to get someone to think hard about why he's not interested in something. The boredom itself preempts inquiry; the fact of the feeling's enough. …Interesting, alive people do not seem to be the ones who are drawn to the Political Process. Think back to the sort of kids in high school or college who were into running for student office: dweeby, over groomed, obsequious to authority, ambitious in a sad way. Eager to play the Game. The kind of kids other kids would want to beat up if it didn't seem so pointless and dull. And now consider [today’s] adult versions of these very same kids . . . Men who aren't enough like human beings even to dislike—what one feels when they loom into view is just an overwhelming lack of interest, the sort of deep disengagement that is so often a defense against pain. Against sadness. In fact the likeliest reason why so many of us care so little about politics is that modern politicians make us sad, hurt us in ways that are hard even to name, much less to talk about. It's way easier to roll your eyes and not give a shit ." Besides the un-cool factor is the looming question of sincerity. Our young demographic has been the target of the most relentless marketing, sales pitching , and hypnotic advertising in history. It’s hard to hear politicians’ statements as anything more than clever, tactical pitches, made for marketability. Nothing sounds sincere, and all the statements of principle or vision couldn’t sound more cliché. “I’m here for you!”, “We need change”, or all the stupid buzz words, like: service, honor, duty, patriotism. This may all sound very cynical, but simple numbers show that this is how most of us apparently feel. And but so the election this Fall feels no different, in terms of its vibe. The coverage has only become more intense, inane, and cluttered. As Obama and McCain go about their business of becoming the world’s most important, immortalized man, it is difficult to view their endeavors as anything more than self-interested. They are essentially salesmen, pitching the idea of themselves as a leader. Or maybe this is just my market-conditioned belief, which tells me that everyone is a salesman and only out for themselves. To reference David Foster Wallace again, he describes a “…sort of interior war between your deep need to believe and your deep belief that the need to believe is bullshit… There’s a very real, very American tension between what [the candidates’] appeal is and the way that appeal must be structured and packaged in order to make them politically viable. ” This all makes for a wild jamboree of gray-area questions, involving sincerity vs. marketing, marketing plus sincerity, and any other combinations which package and sell the same thing. I certainly don’t know how to see it, and I’m not about to try to convince others not to sleepily disengage themselves, either. So, writing about this topic I feel entirely self-conscious, confused and unable to see how much of my cynicism is legitimate. I don’t know or feel that I know at all what is up for grabs in this upcoming American election, or if even anything is up for grabs at all. I know that what both candidates represent are the mildest beliefs of each of their respective parties, and that fundamentally they will both provide change, but not in any significant form. I find myself considering the larger issues, and just simply making a decision based upon them. I cannot know everything, if I can indeed know anything at all, so I feel thwarted and conflicted in my desire to participate. Labels like “Republican” or “Democrat” essentially are meaningless, and give no context or effect to my decision. As an aside, I personally hate being asked whether I am either, and I find it baffling that anyone still tries to use it as a benchmark in order to determine others’ political swayings. You probably don’t even want to hear all this, anyway. If I do not vote my inaction is still an action. As I consider the options this Fall, I will simply have to balance my cynicism and credulity, and find an uneasy perch between the two. In a big way, it is in the interest of both of the major parties for me (and all others my age) to be disgusted and bored by politics. Whether I like it or not, my cynicism and disgust keeps me away from the voting booth, and effectively supports the entrenched establishments. Like we learned in high school, “if you don’t vote, then my vote counts as double”. When a voter turnout is low, it is only the diehard supporters from each party which participate, while the young sit at home watching Family Guy, doubling the diehards’ votes. I simply can’t get excited about Obama’s basic promise not to lie us, or McCain’s glory stories about his military career. Neither of them have any novel policy plans, like advancements on stem cell research, toleration of gay marriage, or realistic stances on America’s religious perversion. Where I throw my vote I haven’t decided. I don’t think that any of us have felt particularly inspired by either candidate. In the aftermath of Bush, no one has really tempered their enthusiasm for a new leader, many are just ready to vote anything – out of sheer excitement for change. We’ll base our vote on single issues, we’ll vote or not vote based upon the candidates’ skin color, we’ll swing to populist appeal, and we’ll still have the “I would like to have a beer with this guy” feeling. I will vote, but I hope to feel like I’m exercising my right responsibly.
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