| | | | | | Tuesday, November 04, 2008 |
On Voting
| | I just got home, and I am trying not to watch the news because I want this entry to be divorced from my feelings regarding results in the elections.
I love voting. I love it so much. I love it because it's a gift that we have as Americans. I've heard it called a privilege (which is true, the government can take it away). I'm less crazy about thinking of it as a duty (civic duty or Duty or otherwise), simply because the idea that I -owe- it to my country to participate takes the pleasure out of participation for me. I choose to participate, and I choose it gladly. I know it's a right, and it's a right that we feel entitled to (properly so) as Americans (and the thought extends "as human beings"), but other places don't get this opportunity. What it is is a goddamned gift.
I like that voting, one of the most obviously political acts that one can do as a citizen, is a patriotic act that cannot be co-opted by political parties. I love that it's something that we all do (obviously not all of us, but many of us) as Americans together.* We all decided together as a group, putting aside our philosophical differences to choose today to stand up and be counted. In this everybody is the same, even the people that you think are idiots gets a voice because that's -fair- and that's -right-.**
So no matter who wins tonight, I just want to note for the record about how damn bursting with patriotism I am right now.
PS (how do you like this I have footnotes AND postscripts, I'm amazing) I don't want this to sound like I'm ragging on people who didn't vote. Looking at our election turnouts not voting is a perfectly American activity.
*One of the other things that we do as a people is pay income tax. Paying taxes is another thing that I'm proud to do, but of course my pride is tempered by grumblings. Because honestly, that is the American Way; taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society, but we don't have to -like- it.
**Let's glide over the whole electoral college mess. It's elitist and wonky, but it doesn't look like it's going away any time soon.
posted by Amber at 5:42 PM
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