No excuses for not casting a vote

By Josh Fedder

I have noticed that among young people lately, there has been a trend toward exercising one's right to not vote.

Most people who exercise this right say that it is because they don't like either candidate, both candidates are equally weak, both candidates really aren't that different, so whichever one wins really doesn't matter.

If their differences were perceived as great, then it would surprise me if young adults chose not to vote, but for whatever reason, some people believe that Democratic and Republican Presidents are roughly the same.

In recent elections, this belief is that they are equally poor. I understand the belief that neither candidate may be that great, but that isn't something that should stop you from voting.

As a citizen of a democracy, the power that you have is the power to vote for a president, a senator or a congressman.

Voting is the way to ensure that you get some semblance of what you want to be represented by, and even if you don't think a candidate is as good as he or she could be, it's no reason not to vote.

Take the 2000 election between George Bush and Al Gore. Both had their respective accolades and both had their negative aspects.

At the time, non-voters might have said, "Well, there really isn't any difference between the two."

In hindsight, this was a pretty unintelligent statement to make, but at the time, it probably made some sense to a significant number of people.

As a consequence of Bush being elected, we have entered a war in Iraq, which has ultimately been found to exist on false pretenses and clever use of the media to convince the American people that it was worth fighting.

Ask yourself this: If Gore had been elected president, would we be involved with a war in Iraq?

Take the economic collapse as another example.

Bush administration laissez-faire economic policies toward business have led to one of the most terrific financial meltdowns in recent history.

Ask yourself, if John Kerry had been elected in 2004, would he have imposed the same standards on businesses as Bush has?

Could different regulations over business and the economy help divert a gigantic economic crash?

I'm not saying vote Democrat. I'm saying voting matters.

When the stock market is down, or when we are on the edge of war or trying to combat a warming planet, you should ask yourself, "Which of these politicians and parties do I trust to take care of this?"

Voting is very important, and to me, this election seems like it may be one of the most important in the past several decades.

Turn off the sensationalist television media, pick up a book, newspaper, magazine or any informational and unbiased medium covering the politics of the election. Do your research and vote on Nov. 4.

Josh Fedder is a junior psychology major.