by Gabe Dull
My name is Gabriel Dull, I am 19, and this will be my first year voting in this country. For as long as I can remember, voting has been the symbol of ultimate freedom, the ability to choose who will run the country, and what we will do to change. When I was in second grade, my school held a mock election. They printed out the 2012 election ballot for all the students, and we got to decide who we would vote for. I loved it, I felt like I was making decisions that mattered.
The 2016 election was the first election I actually took an interest in. My family is split down the middle in terms of politics, so I had a pretty diverse view, at least for an eleven year old in a liberal middle school. Unfortunately, that election did not fuel my interest in politics. It was in fact more of a wake up call to what the US government is actually like. The angry mess that I was introduced to in 2016 was so disappointing in comparison to what I was taught in school. And for such a Christianity heavy country, it was equally contradictory to what I believed Christianity taught.
The 2020 election was the first one that I would consider myself to have been competent enough to have an opinion about. Again, I was surrounded by multiple diverse and strong political opinions that year, and it was so much worse than the previous election. Hate filled the air, and it felt like everyone was at each other’s throats. I spent a lot of time wondering how the adults I looked up to could have ended up like that. Despite that, I strongly believed that my generation would be different, and I was looking forward to the next election, where I could be part of the change.
My excitement came to a very swift end when I realized that I do not have the freedom of choice in this election. I personally do not like either of the candidates on the ballot. I feel like neither of them truly embody my political values. Regardless of my personal opinion, I feel like there’s a lack of freedom in the greater view as well. Almost everyone in this country believes that there is one right choice, and that anyone who doesn’t agree is stupid, or brainwashed. And that decision is often made because a person’s candidate of choice belongs to the political party that is most accepted in their social circle.
As a country, we have failed to uphold what we claim makes us unique, the ability for the people to have the ultimate say in the government. People’s opinions and beliefs are no longer what influences their vote. It’s all been washed away by political propaganda and social pressure. I constantly find myself exhausted by the constant signage everywhere, promoting one side of the political fence, lumping the entirety of Americans into two distinct groups that are pitted against each other at each turn. How can we expect to solve the greater problems in this country?
In this election, and all to come, I urge you to vote for yourself. Look at the world, decide what matters to you, and vote accordingly. More importantly, understand that not all those around you will agree with your opinion, that you may not agree with theirs, and that is ok. Our disagreements are what make us diverse.
