Every day, whether on mainstream media or from family and friends, I hear that voting is my American duty to my country, but in recent years Im left wondering, what about my nations duty to me? The United States is propped up on a two party system, that will never be broken without either a complete movement away from either both or one of the parties or massive voting reform. The first of which has a possibility of happening given time, as we have seen in history, the second of which has no chance in hell. The ones in power are not going to chose to reform the very two party system that helps keep themselves in party. As an American I am left with only a few choices when voting. Vote a third party candidate, many of whom wouldn’t be qualified to manage a 7/11 let alone a country and one of the two main party nominees, who, this election are both equally terrible. 

http://www.partycrashertshirts.com/image/cache/data/shirts/sku%200001/0001-logo-366x366.jpg

I feel as if my nation has failed me in terms of candidates and the reason for this is because rather than choosing the person who would be best for our country, two people on two different extremes have been nominated. If my country does not hold up to its part of the bargain and nominate people worthy of being president of the United States, then why should I vote? Ever since rock the vote in the early 90s, there has been a massive push for the youth in our country to vote, however misinformed or ignorant they are. In the long run I think having ignorant voters is hurting us past the point of no return. We are electing officials with policies that either push problems down the line or react to them in an unproportional way. The average voter doesn’t know about these types of things so its easy to pull a fast one on them. How many people in America do you think knew in depth was quantitative easing was or agreed that we should do it during the financial crises? I personally think of voting as a privilege, not a right. Calling something a right brings entitlement which means that people unqualified to make a decision are making them anyway. 

Unpopular opinion here, but if I could institute a law that said an American would have to pass a basic citizenship test to be eligible to vote, I would. Logistics aside about the possible corruption the test could bring . You would only need to take it once in your life and it would consist of standard questions that any immigrant in this country that is seeking citizenship is asked. For example, what are the three branches of government, how many senators are there ect. Having people take this test would weed out those who have zero interest in actually educating themselves on the election and the people they are bringing into power. Hopefully in future elections, not just voting people who are making decisions that keep them elected another term, but ones that will actually increase the quality of life for current and future generations. 

https://deliriousantidotes.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/boondocks.jpg

Currently, neither candidate is going to do either of those and we are forced to choose the lesser of two evils, based on what morals you believe. So I choose to not vote because I don’t want to be responsible for bringing either of them into power , despite which one might be worse. The way I see it is I am rejecting the nominees that the two political parties have chosen and conscientiously objecting them. The government is supposed to serve me as a citizen of the United States and neither candidate or any of the main third parties will do so. In all honesty my vote doesn’t really matter and abstaining will go unnoticed, but to me I refuse to take part in a system that feels very undemocratic. 

I have talked about this before but I think we need to force a voting system overhaul, changing how voting works in this country to a better system. The winner takes all method is neither serving citizens nor the country as a whole. I personally like the single transferable vote system, which allows you to vote on more than one candidate(usually 3ish), so if one of your candidates has no chance of winning, the vote will swing over to one of your other candidates. Doing so would give independents that are worthy of votes, a real chance to break the bipartisan system we currently have in our country. 

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/sites/default/files/styles/558x241/public/dynamicImages/Single%20Transferable%20Vote%20STV.jpg?itok=CKWVQI6A

I know that I made a bunch of simplified claims, but because this is a rant I mostly just write what comes to mind. Politics is a difficult topic to speak about and I know that within a few hours im going to start seeing the comments fill with people either yelling at me or each other.  I will not flag them, but I will upvote all around them to make them seem irrelevant. Try and be civil without ripping eachother’s throats out.

-Calaber24p