Zach Nebben

George Washington once warned the nation of the inherent dangers involved with becoming a two-party political system. Here we are, 200 years later, stewing in the mess we’ve created.

The masses are compelled to blindly label themselves as a Democrat or a Republican. Elections are close, so of course I’m ravaged daily by the zoo crews of political activists desperately trying to recruit me for their party.

Sorry, gang. I’m not going to RSVP to that little get-together. The other day, I was almost able to refuse joining the College Democrats and Republicans simultaneously. I was approached by one, then moments later by the other. I passed out an abrupt “No” to each person and was on my way.

What seemed strange to me was my accompanying crowd. I received looks of confusion, frustration and even a hint of anger. The first comment was “Why aren’t you joining either party?” It was followed with “Looks like we’ve lost another person to apathy.” The icing on the cake came in the form of “I can’t believe people like you don’t care about politics!”

Are you kidding me? Apparently, some of you have become so numb to the two-party system that an independent boggles the mind. I don’t need a label to tell me how I should vote. I am a rational, intelligent human being who is capable of making decisions on my own. Unfortunately, our politicians seem to struggle with that.

Almost every politician limits his or her perspective on important issues down to whether or not they’re following the respective ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ definitions. They think it will help win votes. And because of our brainwashed society, it does. The masses vote for the politician that best suits their values without ever taking the time to truly think about what their values are anymore.

The only people left to take individual stances on individual issues are the independents. But, because of our dedication to this pointless system, an independent never becomes empowered. We make ourselves vote for a person that may agree with us on one issue but takes an opposing stance on another issue.

But wait! Nobody is forcing you to vote for that person! Six presidential candidates made it to the ballots in 2004. Yet, the only two anyone bothered to talk about were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Nothing stopped anyone from voting for any of the other four candidates. Polls indicated that the majority of the population was just trying to vote for one of the ‘lesser of two evils’. In reality, they were voting for one of the lesser of the two evils that had the most common two labels in our political system.

When voting comes around this fall, please don’t vote for or against an issue because “that’s just how Democrats are voting” or “this is too liberal for my Republican tastes”. Vote for or against an issue because that is truly what you believe is right for yourself, not because some group told you to.

#1.883983:1899735443.jpg:Nebben, Zach (thinker).jpg:Zach Nebben, Call me Crazy: