Once a week a good friend and I go shopping for our weekly groceries. After roaming up and down the endless aisles of food, we like to top our excursion off with some beers and conversation. I always enjoy talking to him; this is probably why I consider him one of my good friends. He’s a common guy with a big heart. Well, after one of our shopping adventures, we got to talking about the Democratic and Republican primaries. He told me if he were to vote it would be for Rudy Giuliani. I was taken back when he told me this, because I always thought of him as a liberal Democrat.
As I meandered home from his house, the cool wind bit my cheeks red. I thought to myself, “Fall is finally here.” It then made me think about this growing concern of global warming, because just the day before it was 90 degrees. I also thought about all the other serious concerns of this country. The immigration issue with Mexico, the endless war in Iraq and our nation’s dependency on oil. And then it hit me, before he told me who he would vote for, he said, “If I were to vote.”
When I returned back to my room, I found an urge to look up the percentage of young voters that actually vote. I found a Web site titled, “Young Voter Strategies,” and on this site it stated that only 49 percent of 18- to 29-year-old citizens vote. I always knew this number was low, so it didn’t hit me as a surprise. But I did want to know why.
I think back on the hippy generation of my parents and how they had a mass movement to lower the voting age to 18. This generation believed that it didn’t seem right to expect someone to die for our democracy and then not really have a say in the policies that led to war and kept us in the war. This generation believed it could make immense change to this country through the political system. Looking at our generation now, I think this belief has slowly dissipated. I don’t think it is because we don’t care about these issues, of course we do. I think it is because within this system there seems to be no possibility of change. When I think of Republicans and Democrats, I always think about flipping a coin. You get heads or tails. That’s all these parties are, two different sides of a coin. And within these two different sides of the coin, you get standard candidates that the youth of this nation can rarely relate to.
I bet if you would ask most of my friends where I stand, Democratic or Republican, most would say I am a liberal Democrat, way off on the left. If you read my column often, you may say the same. But if you ask me personally, I consider myself an Independent. I am against abortion. I also believe that if we bring the troops home from Iraq now, it could be an even worse decision than when we first went into Iraq. It’s not where I stand that matters. More importantly, I say this because I am sick of this system where I only have two different sides to choose from. And they’re not very different, it’s like choosing between a red apple and green apple.
I want a real candidate that will step up. I want a common American, one like my friend, even. One that doesn’t look at issues politically, but morally. I want a candidate that doesn’t showcase one image while running and do something different while in office. I want someone that will get on stage without a Gucci suit and the support of multi-million-dollar businesses. I want a candidate to say he decided on an issue for another reason than just his political affiliation or the influence of some big corporation. No. I want him to decide to pursue an issue for the well-being and greatness of this country.
It seems to me that, as a generation, we get this bad rap for not voting and caring about the issues. But I think this is all wrong. I believe, as a generation, we are waiting for a real candidate to stand up. A candidate that is not with the Democratic or Republican parties, but one that is in the party of morals. One we can relate to and enable us to believe in change again. This is what I am asking for. I believe this is what we, as a generation, are asking for. And when this happens, this is when we’ll vote.
