****
And, I’m a lone, confused survivor, getting by in the hot mess that is unfolding. I feel like Sarah Connor in those Terminator movies and the spinoff TV series. Play the drums and hand me my assault rifle, with a grenade launcher and flamethrower. Let me put on my aviator sunglasses. Hasta la vista, humanity.
What is happening here?
It really sounds like the end of the world described in the Bible. Fires and conflicts everywhere. Riots in the streets. Mass assaults no one seems able to prevent. Political leadership in question and doubt.
On that note, let me talk about voting in the USA. No, there won’t be any national secrets unleashed, you hackers out there. I’m just talking about the basic system at hand…and only the basics of it. Voting is gradually making less and less sense. And, jokes are being made about uneducated voters. Lately, I’d say all voters who don’t interview the candidates themselves are uneducated. And, voting seems very unintelligent in more ways than one.
Recently, a “primary” vote was cast/called for which limited voters to two choices, even though the ballots had multiple choices on them.
Now, unless I’ve just walked into a crazy dimension where the old rules don’t apply and madness rules, a primary has always been a vote, before the final vote cycle, in which parties (Democratic and Republican) filtered out the candidates that were not popular for each position. You had the complex task of learning about every candidate (or just wildly picking…or basing your decisions upon which party you think has more sense, thus pegging the other party as the enemy, even though both parties have to somehow work together to include everybody in a UNITED country). Then you had to pick which candidate you favored for each job category. So, maybe you like this one blue guy for senator and this one red gal for district leader in that one part of town. You broke down the options before the final vote, which typically happens in November. There have also been primaries for each party, so you could breathe a little easier and only pick your favorites (or least hated, if you are so inclined to favor only one party/side) from each side before deciding who gets the final votes.
Apparently, this recent primary eliminated most of the “confusion” and difficulty by giving voters, essentially, one choice. [Just like my family only gives me one choice when attempting to have a discussion; either I agree with what they are thrusting in my face or they ignore an badger me.]
There were multiple items and people to vote for on both the Democratic and Republican side. But, there was a hitch, a trick. And, if you didn’t listen, your vote did nothing. The trick was you had to pick all blue or all red choices; no mixing. Strangely, while you could go down the page and pick out individuals you liked (or hated less than others), you were limited to one color, one side; and if you didn’t like someone on that one color’s side…well, tough.
Just push one button, and you’re done (but look at all of the details you don’t want to read because their are choices you are making with that one choice which you cannot alter if you are a true believer of democracy and would like to be fair to both parties). And, by that, I mean there could be good candidates in both parties, people who could work the two sides together in harmony…but voting is ruling that kind of thinking out. You either are blue or red. [There is no Pokémon-game-version mixing here; no trading version exclusives.]
Well, that sounds as simple as you can get, but where is the fairness to both sides? And, how can choosing one option, one side, one color, also impact other decisions that affect vital rule-setting documents? [Talk about some mad villain’s plot to dangle the hero over a dooming device. Will you the voter survive this dastardly scheme or will you face The End?]
Not only are the candidate choices limited to a pick of color, but, apparently, there is an inclusion about how the very US Constitution could be altered, like a sneaky clause by the line you sign on a contract with some evil entity after your soul. So, pick what party you favor…and decide your constitution’s fate, as well?
[This reminds me of something I experienced on a rare cruise I took. There was a certain expectation about tipping which was discussed prior to the trip, but there was, later, a mandated document that listed other expectations of tips. I didn’t have much choice but also didn’t have much money to just start passing around like I had a cigar in my mouth and a ten-gallon cowboy hat on my rich-Texan head. Suffice to say, I was a bit irate, not knowing the document mandate was going to appear in my room like a silent threat from the maid.]
I guess we have come to a time in history when voting is more hazardous than smoking and drinking and when both sides might be holding a gun to the head of the nation’s rulebook. That’s insane. So much talk about hacking and rigged elections; how does anyone feel sensible placing a vote? And, they have been doing far more pushing for multiple votes, too. Primaries used to be sort of slighted in favor of the final votes. But, now, they’re finding new ways to jab them at people and make threatening comments about the fate of the country.
[I feel like every vote includes the leader of some terrorist army talking in a monotone voice on TV; he’s making a mandate for all of the USA to hand over their assets unless they submit to a decision he is making. That or it’s John Cleese in the movie Rat Race, betting on what moves I make, along with a few dozen other wealthy jerks.]
So, there’s this question. If I don’t vote, what kind of citizen am I? And, if I do vote, am I just going along with a hazardous scheme, playing a tiny part in some madman’s game? Is voting now Jumanji or die?
Let me take a step back and talk about something I think is important for voting: being educated before you vote.
Well, only true extroverts like seeing politicians show up at their door (because they can’t get enough socializing). So, I guess politicians aren’t doing that as much as they used to, now that more people are turning introverted and anti-social, relying on radiating devices in their hands to do everything for them, which is why we are doing the crazy stuff like calling the devices smart and the voters stupid.
The internet is dismissed and questioned. Fake news is a popular term. You can’t trust the internet, they say. Well, if everyone’s being drawn to it like a bug to the flame, what sense does this make? It does not make sense.
Newspapers are now dinosaur fossils, not the flags people used to raise overhead and flash some headline about what’s happening in the world. [How many ancient photographs have I seen of people holding up newpapers to display big, bold era-shifting headlines?] Online newspapers are not papers…they’re ad-injected, seemingly limited pockets of cyberspace which cannot be held, folded or flapped and may require you to deal with cookies and pop-ups and frustrating searches to get the whole stories, which are not as satisfying as the old ones were (to me), even though I’m not much of a reader.
So, we’re not entertaining people at our door (while, instead, dealing with porch pirates–yar) and we’re glued to the internet but not believing what we supposedly need to read, instead mindlessly scrolling for bits of entertainment and trends to follow. Good talk. Communication fail. People stop socializing; that’s a good sign…not.
Celebrities are pitching everything under the sun, even when they seem to be sounding like they are supporting humankind. Nice try, artificially generated and highly filtered aging faces we know. But, I don’t think I’ve seen any celebrities (from movies and TV) pitching for political candidates…yet. I just hope we’re not voting for an AI or Amazon or Tesla or Disney or Mr. Monopoly takeover.
Now that you’re educated…sort of…you have to know where and how to vote. Unfortunately, this year, there’s added confusion to that little detail. They call it redistricting, or the new mapping of where certain residents must vote. So, imagine playing a game of Twister while trying to decide the fate of your government. Yep. Imagine going to vote and finding yourself at the wrong pit stop. Oops. Now, you’re out of time, too. Rats. And, you made these changes in an important election year. Way to go.
Will there be any confusion counting ballots? Of course there will. You made the process a three-ring circus, including a crass lion and a laughing (or waltzing) hyena. Spare me the daily reports of recounts and candidates arguing how the contest was hacked and/or rigged. Just blame Chad…not the country, that guy over there.
[I find myself drifting back to a previous election in which “chads” were all the rage for weeks upon weeks of news coverage. Those were the days…when I wanted to puke my guts out and scream at the stars.]
And, breathe.
Even if the system has been turned into a hot mess…and even if the impending decision seems easy, because Option T sounds more hazardous than Option K…I think voting has become a game of Three-Card Monty. You see two sides of the situation (and both are colored a certain way to evoke response rather than be absolutely honest and thorough), but there’s a third element you seem to perpetually miss which will take you by surprise once it’s in power. So, Option T puts on a good show to get you riled up, and Option K offers a fire extinguisher in your time of need. But, what about that card still sitting face-down?
As Sarah Connors had to cope, I am thinking I cannot change or impact the vote, even if I try. So, perhaps, no matter the decision, I just have to stay armed and ready to fight for myself, come what may (Moulin Rouge). You want my vote? Come and get me. I wouldn’t want to be guilty of voting for a nuclear bomb or “the machine.”
So…yea…I think the Mayans were right. The world DID end in 2012. At least, the world as I knew it. And, I’m not fine with that, REM. Population–BOOM!
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