By Jared Thomas–
I don’t believe in us anymore.
I’m not talking about you or Louisville or the university or anyone specifically. I’m talking about our society, the group of us that somehow decided the best we could collectively muster was a racist real estate mogul and a compulsively corrupt career politician.
This is my first presidential election and I could not be more angry, upset and disillusioned about everything. People often say to vote for the lesser of two evils, but in this case, the two evils are so ludicrously great that I feel like I’m choosing between a third world war and a fourth.
Between the two candidates our dilapidated, broken two party system could muster, the only thing I have been inspired to do is lock myself in a room and cry.
It is a sad state of affairs when Libertarian Gary Johnson’s greatest strength had nothing to do with his political chops, but everything to do with the fact that he is the only major candidate not being investigated by the FBI while the election is happening.
Still, Johnson has his own faults. His legendary Aleppo mistake might be considered one of them. His propensity for sick Twitter burns might be another. So then you might be wondering, crying or screaming at the skies, “Who do I vote for when everyone is terrible?”
There is no right answer and that is exactly why I’ll be voting for no one.
No, I’m not skipping the ballot box. I will still be there bright and early at the polls, but I’ll be writing in “No Confidence” like other Americans who have completely lost faith in the current political landscape.
I refuse to let myself be part of the problem that swept these candidates into the forefront and I can’t in good conscious endorse any of them. So I won’t.
In the most civil, democratic way possible, I’ll be voicing my opinion that this election has been an utter sham that polarizes and mocks what it means to be a democracy.
I’m not asking you to join me. Some might say I am wasting my vote. I’m a registered Libertarian, so I guess those same people would assume that I would be wasting it. Isn’t a vote you don’t believe in just as much of a waste? Isn’t it just as much of a failure to our system?
I’ll vote for one of the system’s candidates when the system gives me something worth voting for.