The issue we have in our politics at hand, in our world today, is that citizens treat their politics as they would treat their favourite football teams, or best friends, or even lovers. This has made me question if we are in fact ready, as a global civilization, to even have our own politics. Maybe we should just be ruled by kings and queens again. Or Pharaohs. Perhaps that’s what we deserve. Because politics requires critical thinking, which is currently very apparently available in the minds of only a select few. To apply critical thinking to the situation at hand, letting go of previous attachments and persuasions well enough to understand what’s needed to be done in order to address it. It’s not a football team: win or lose, you’ve got your team’s back. Politics is not your team, ever. Politics is a tool and when critical thinking is applied to this tool in order to achieve beneficial outcomes, the benefits go to the people.
I’m an
independent voter, which means I can vote Republican or I can vote Democrat,
depending on the current situation and what needs to be done with it. I voted
Obama because I believed that it was time for that change, it was time to see a
black president as the leader of the free world. Towards the end of his term,
the developing and growing problem was a global terror threat which I believed
he was failing at miserably. We needed someone who could put an end to the
almost-daily reports of mass shootings and trucks ramming through families at
Christmas villages. Right enough, the reign of terror ended almost overnight
when Trump stepped into office. I voted Trump then. Now, towards the end of
Trump’s term, we have a global pandemic on our hands and he is not only failing
miserably at handling the catastrophe, but one could be forgiven for saying
that he is actually fueling the catastrophe to extents the like we’ve never
even seen before! He needs to go as soon as possible, because we need someone
who can save American lives in the midst of a global pandemic. And because this
is a GLOBAL pandemic, the whole world needs this; not just Americans. So now, I
have voted Biden.
The highest form
of intelligence is ADAPTABILITY. Adaptability needs to be applied to politics
because the lives of citizens of a nation are always at stake. Instead, what
the majority of the population applies to their politics, is emotional passion
and devotion the likes of what we see in religious circles and even cults. We
must apply the highest form of intelligence and be able to change our politics
based upon what is needed at the current time. Not based upon emotional hearsay.
The most defining
election in the history of the United States, has been this election of 2020.
More people turned out to vote than in any other election in the history of the
nation. And yet, of all the people in my family who normally vote Republican,
they still voted Republican this year. Unable to adapt to the current events. Unfortunately,
they do represent the usual face of voting mentality, which is the absence of
adaptability and the overabundance of emotional passions.
Emotional
passions this year, though, are not just that. This year, passion and emotional
hearsay have the power to sever ties between parent and child, aunt and nephew,
brother and sister, best friends, cousins, so on and so forth. We are realizing,
this year, that the people we have loved all our lives are people we don’t want
to see anymore. This year, it is more than just difficult to not be
passionate about the elections because too much is at stake. This year, your
vote for your right to not wear a mask is equivalent to a vote for the death of
someone I love. There is no getting around it. It’s not for
ourselves anymore (well at least, from the Biden camp, it’s not for ourselves at
all).
I ultimately
voted Biden when I spoke to my father on FB videochat and he told me that he was
thinking about not wearing a mask anymore, because, “The president doesn’t even
wear a mask.” It only took that split second for me to know whom I was voting
for. To hell with everything else. If my one vote meant that I could help
protect the life of the man I have loved the longest in my life, then that is
exactly where my vote was going to go to!
This year, we are
seeing parts of people that we didn’t even know existed before, as well as
learning about parts of ourselves that we weren’t well-acquainted with before. About
myself, I have learned, that I would absolutely put my relationships with those
whom I love at the forefront of my pertinently important decisions. I care. I love.
And I care and love HARD. Nothing will come in the way of that, for me. But I’ve
also been extremely disappointed in those very near to me; at their blatant
disregard for the loss of human life in favour of what they view as their own
liberties, which are, severely distorted, sensationalised and twisted (how is
wearing a mask and staying at home akin to slavery?) I am also extremely
disappointed in those who blatantly disregard compassion and kindness in favour
of whateverthefuck their pastors in church say. I have seen religious zeal this
year the likes of which I would be ready to compare to that of the middle ages
during the Inquisitions, a time when Christians were the most godawful
terrorists on the planet.
It’s frightening, it is. It’s frightening to realise that human traits we thought have been left in the twelfth century, could so easily be reignited, today. It’s frightening to realise that maybe we really are just a coin’s toss away from burning women alive again, for burning villages to the ground for not converting to Christianity, again. I’m certainly very concerned.
How are we ever going to truly reshape the faces of our nations, when most of the voters we have are intelligence deficient? Absolutely no capability to adapt, to think critically. When all decisions are made through religious opinions and emotional passions, should any of us even be voting at all? My thoughts wander as my insides grieve.