Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers of our nation scrawled out, on parchment, our Constitution, outlining the “God-given” rights that we, as citizens of the United States, would be privileged. This Constitution states that sovereignty (or supreme power) is to be in the hands of the citizens of the United States. That supreme power, however, is put into place only by those Americans that actually practice their right to vote and go to the polls to put into power, persons who will lead this nation towards peace and success.
Our country (more specifically the electoral college) made a wrong decision in 2001 in electing George Bush as 43rd president of the United States. And whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or Independent, you must admit that the Bush Administration has caused the United States damage on both economic and diplomatic levels which will be difficult to set right, come January 2009. This is why the Presidential elections coming up in November is vital not only to our country, but to the world. If you fail to see this negligence of the Administration that has held the political rains of our nation for the past 7 years, you should then take a look at the facts.
Only shortly after being elected into office, George Bush lead us into a pointless war with Iraq (without the support of the United Nations) and in turn, ended up bankrupting the treasury and spending all the surplus we had enjoyed during Clinton’s time in office. Now, after five years of fighting in Iraq (a war that has now lasted longer than World War II), the United States is in $9.2 trillion—that’s right—trillion, in debt to other countries to fund our “efforts” overseas. This, in case you didn’t already assume, is the greatest national deficit in the history of the United States. In addition, during Bush’s first year in office, 2 million Americans lost their jobs, 80,000 alone in the month of March, 2008. He not only presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history, but also over the highest gasoline prices since the advent of automobiles and refused to use national reserves to ease costs at the pump. I don’t know what else can be said to relieve you of doubt besides only some of the facts presented here.
So a definite need for change is here. But there are numerous reasons why Americans in the past, especially young Americans like ourselves, have foolishly not exercised their right to vote. Many refer back to the elections in 2001, in which the Electoral College voted contradictory to what popular vote reflected as support for their argument that going to the polls is pointless. Now I as one would agree with most that the Electoral College should be abolished because of the fact that it takes away the rights that we have, as citizens, to pick our own leader. But until that happens, we can’t just throw our hands up in defeat—the College is going to choose the candidate even if there are 100 votes cast in the popular vote. So for the time being, we need to put our faith in those individuals that represent us in this electoral body.
Others tell me that their vote won’t make that much of a difference overall. If you are one of these, then listen up. If everyone had this mentality, then nothing would get done and our sense of national pride would spoil into a submissive outlook on an absolutist form of leadership. If we all followed the elections and gathered facts about each candidate, then we would be safer from the danger of voting for a candidate based on party affiliation and/or media attention. Better quality decisions would be made and more than likely, more voter turnout would result.
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