November 2, 2010

Today is election day. I have voted in every election since 1974, the first for which I was eligible (in those days when 18-year-old guys were being drafted to die in Vietnam, you had to be 21 years old to vote). I could have voted in 1972, but I was out of the country and had no concept of absentee balloting. Also, since I was a Mormon missionary at the time, I expect voting was against mission rules, at least for the people I would have voted for. So, today is really a first for me: I’m not voting. There are two primary reasons for my decision not to vote. First is that the political system has become so corrupt, politicians are owned completely by large donors, mainly large corporations, that voting has become meaningless. As Noam Chomsky has said, it is just Kabuki theatre to keep the people distracted. And second, there is no one even remotely close to my political views running. Minnesota is the State of Hockey, and Utah is the State of Conservative Posturing and Hypocrisy. Even the very few “Democrats” here are so conservative I get a rash just thinking about them. So, this is a sad and troubling day for me, and a sad and dangerous day for what the American political system has become. Is this a great country, or what?