An undecided voter!

It is a dangerous time for politically neutral people like myself in the United States right now! This election, however silly I might think it is, has the potential to shape the whole world for the next four years. I am not completely oblivious to the impact of the outcome of this election. But on the other hand, the current situation, however dire it may be, doesn’t provoke or inspire me to take matters into my own hands and cast that oh-so-essential vote thinking that this one vote matters! I am not a kind of person who feels obligated to vote and make a difference. I’m among the people who feel one vote won’t really matter in the larger scheme of things. But people close to me give such adverse reactions when they hear me say this that they are making sure that I am informed every step of the way and are threatening to break ties with me if I don’t vote and save the country!

I have always been politically ignorant whether it was in India or now the United States. I will not say that I’m proud of it but somehow this just never interested me. In India, whether it was the Congress or the BJP, the choice was never really clear, in the sense that both parties were equally corrupt and equally useless when it came to doing something good for the country and bringing about a change in the mindset of the people of the country and most importantly, eliminating corruption from the country. Neither of the parties has been able to make the country a safe place for women or eliminate bureaucracy or reduce the gap between the poor and the rich. Both parties claim to uplift the rural and middle classes during election campaigns and then disappear when the time comes to act on the promises. Once in a while, there may rise some hope like when someone like Mamata Banerjee wins an election against the powerful CPM or when Narendra Modi wins over Congress. But these are just hypes that die down with the passing of time. I may be wrong. I am after all, less informed than most due to my lack of interest. But I do know that this is a recurring sentiment among the people of India. Hence voting for either parties meant sending the country to its doom, something that can be equated with an old saying as an action that’s between the devil and deep sea (in Hindi: aage kua peeche khai)!

That is exactly what I feel about this year’s Presidential elections in the United States. Here in the United States, I have never taken an interest in politics until this election. I do not know America’s political history at all but just from the basic knowledge of their two main parties, The Democrats and the Republicans, I always identified myself with the Democrats and that is not because I know what each party tries to focus their efforts on or all the policies that they back but just by the plain ideology that republicans are conservative and democrats are liberal. I know I am not the only one who is ignorant and though I agree one shouldn’t be as ignorant as I am, I admit that as a personal choice, I have never taken an interest in what each party tries to back in their campaign simply because of the two candidates who are nominees for this year’s elections. If anything, this election is anything but serious for me. I did not pay attention to the campaigns by each of the Democratic candidates or the Republican candidates that led up to the final nominations. My only thought process was that I will pay some attention when I know the final candidates that I may or may not actually vote for. There is no point voting for one candidate who may not actually even reach the final nomination. Yes, that might be a stupid way of looking at things with the “every vote counts” ideology but that’s how I looked at it. So finally we get to a choice between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump. In such a case, really, is there even a real question as to who should win? Isn’t it obvious? Why are we even having this election?

To begin with, I really don’t see how people could even nominate Trump. I don’t say this because I would consider myself a democrat and not a republican if i really had to choose. In my opinion, if the Republicans were so naive as to not know their candidate well enough before making him their nominee, they should not be allowed to withdraw support and they should actually suffer for their mistake. But then, why should the rest of the world suffer with them? I consider myself neutral because there have been cases against Hilary as well. Some say she is polished enough to get away with stuff. Trump even tried to bring up some cases but he was so stupid otherwise that his own actions/statements overshadowed any other potentially valid points against Hilary. But even though Hilary may have some black marks on her record, she is not stupid like her opponent. I have to admit. This opinion of mine has developed by listening to two people – Michele Obama (for the good in Hilary) and Trevor Noah (for Hilary not being stupid)! To be honest, listening to Michele Obama campaign for Hilary, I want to wholeheartedly support Michele as a presidential candidate. Now for her, I wouldn’t think twice before wanting to vote! Listening to her, I have formed a more favorable opinion about Hilary. But when you come to think about it, this election has been tilting towards Hilary just because of Trump’s mistakes. It is not because of Hilary’s qualifications for the post of the Commander-in-Chief or the President of the most powerful nation in the world! Every single time Trump opens his mouth, Hilary inches one step closer to victory and that has nothing to do with being a democrat or a republican. This also makes me wonder about how his family feels about everything that he says. They seem like nice people! But who knows!

With many prominent Republican officials withdrawing support for Trump, the repeated failure of Trump in swaying the public towards his cause during the three Presidential Debates, some exit polls numbers and the open mocking of Trump on television in shows like Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, the media has all but declared Hilary as the winner of the 2016 election. This has created a huge hysteria in the Trump camp with Trump claiming that the election is rigged. Adding to this is the growing worry of Trump’s childish behavior of not stating that he will agree with the election decision. This is a classic case of kids saying that the game is fair if they win and it is rigged if they lose! But I don’t see why he is getting so agitated. In an interview I saw on tv recently, a lady claimed that she was a republican and would vote for whoever was the republican nominee even if it meant voting for Trump. Its people like them that America needs to watch out for. The final war will not be between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump but between true idealistic Democrats and Republicans. Actually, this election will be a true test for Republicans! Will they choose to back the ideals of the party irrespective of who the man is that they are trusting to uphold their values or will they think about the country first and really choose to make their country their priority?