Reflections on Democracy
2/5/07
“Super Tuesday”
I took a walk today, down to the little Korean church a few blocks away, the nearest Polling Place, to see Democracy in action. I stood outside, watching. A couple of old ladies handed a ballot to a young woman, a college student would be my guess, or a recent graduate. Several people stood at the aluminum voting booths, deciding who the next president will be. An elderly man handed in his decision to the woman at the door, to be added to the tallies. This is democracy. Ordinary people, stopping by on their way home from their ordinary jobs, to do an extraordinary thing: elect the next ruler of the most powerful country in the world. They based their decisions on what their candidate stands for, and in order to ascend to power, the candidate must stand for what the majority of the people stand for.
The system has its faults, don’t get me wrong. By the time the exit polls come in tonight, the race will be down to two people: a Democrat and a Republican. All those third (and fourth, and fifth, and sixth) parties don’t stand a chance, at least this time around. Someday, maybe, once people begin believing that they DO have a chance to win it all, and vote for who they REALLY want, instead of the “lesser of two evils” that so many settle for, thinking that if they’re going to vote, they should make it count, and vote for one of the Two. Here’s a secret: Every vote counts, no matter to which candidate it goes. If everyone who wanted an Independent for President voted for that Independent, the Independent might be in the running, but people have gotten so pessimistic about an Independent’s chances in the November elections that many don’t vote for what they truly believe.
Here’s what I believe: every vote counts, and tonight, every person who visits their Korean-church-a-few-blocks-away equivalent has a hand in deciding the fate of billions for the next 4 years, and beyond. I only wish I was born 20 days earlier, so I could participate too.