Get Your Voice Back

This story is featured in our election coverage.
There is one day a year in early November where Americans are able to utilize their right to vote in general elections. That day, November 2, is only one week away. Many people that I’ve spoken with about the issue have expressed their apathy about the mid-term house and senate elections, which is very puzzling to me. The majority of the registered population will flock to the polls every four years when the presidential elections are taking place but will completely ignore their local and state elections between presidential races. This is amazing because each individual’s vote has much less value in the presidential elections because of the electoral college than do local and state politics. This was proved very evident during the 2000 elections when Democratic nominee Al Gore, who won the popular vote, lost to Republican nominee George Bush due to technicalities within the system.

The fact of the matter is the vote of the citizen directly elects those that sit in the local and state government, so wouldn’t the mid-term elections be the most desirable time to vote? These elections are the ones that really matter to the citizens and their immediate life. Those in Congress are the ones that decide whether legislation will be passed or not. Point and case is TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program that was signed into law by Congress and President George W. Bush in October of 2003. This program gave the United States government permission to purchase 700 billion dollars in “troubled assets” which led to the bailouts of various financial and industrial institutions. The nations deficit was nearly increased by 700 hundred billion in a matter of weeks. This initial bailout was only the beginning for the bailouts that occurred later. This was made possible because of the politicians that America votes for. The college generation, their children, and their grandchildren will have to pay off this deficit with taxes for a very long time. If this is something that doesn’t sound ideal then it is about time to begin having a hand in who is representing you in Congress. That is what representation is all about, so get your voice back and go vote!

Posted by Victoria Shirley on Oct 26 2010. Filed under Elections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.