In two and half weeks, I will do my patriotic duty by driving to Freedom High School, standing in line, going behind the curtain, and pushing buttons until none of them flash at me. I do this because of all those political science classes I sat through, all the pledges of allegiance I've heard or said, every war movie and baseball game I've attended. I do it because it is an honor to cast one vote for the future of our nation. So why is it that I don't feel passionate about any candidate, bond issue or amendment?

The simple truth is that politicians these days do very little to tell you what they plan on doing if elected. They all say they have an education plan, an economic plan, and a genuine concern for the people. What they don't say is what they are really about. What does their heart lie? What bothers them about how the system is currently working? I am not the most diligent researcher into the motivations of the current candidates, but I don't think I should have to be. Shouldn't they be reaching out to the voters? Shouldn't something (anything!) they say strike a passionate cord with me? Aren't these people supposed to be representing us?

There are several issues and situations currently occurring in American History:

Our economy is wallowing in recession
Our president is pushing for the power of first strike
Our water is disappearing in the wake of a nationwide drought
My state is always top five in poverty and bottom five in education
Wall Street executives steal billions from American workers
The big cities get bigger while the infrastructure crumbles
The small towns dwindle into obscurity
Terrorists are blowing up Indonesia
The Giants and Angels are in the World Series
And on and on

I don't know how the candidates feel about hardly any of those things. No challengers are speaking out against policies they feel are unjust (probably because they don't know what the policies are). No incumbents are trumpeting the projects and accomplishments of their last term (probably because they didn't do much). They just slap their names on the ballot, attend the lunches and dinners, shake hands with the money makers, and hope its enough to get more votes than the next guy.

Politics is boring. Not inherently, mind you, but the people running the show have made their product so unwatchable and uninteresting that the majority of Americans decline their right to vote every election. I can't blame them too much because when I look at the candidates, it doesn't seem like any of them will ever impact my life in a positive way if at all. It's like someone telling you to pick between walnuts and pecans, and you don't really care for nuts in the first place.

The candidates are all just names to me. Do I think any of them will spur legislation that will get the economy moving? Do I think any of them will fight for the Average Joe instead of accepting the money of big business? Will any of them spark a glimmer of hope for a bright tomorrow? Nope, nope, nope.

A couple months ago, I watched a decent Robert Redford movie called The Candidate. It's about a grass roots son of a politician who gets courted to run for the Senate. As the campaign goes along, he sacrifices his beliefs for an ambiguous five point plan his staff created to outline his position. There is a blueprint to winning an election, and that is to look as good as you can without saying anything at all. At the end of the movie, when the candidate pulls off the upset and wins, Redford sits amidst the celebration, mouthing the question to his advisor "What do we do now?"

So what do we do now? Well, I will still go into the booth, and push buttons for faceless names. Some democrat, some republican, some green, some miscellaneous, and I will go home and have a drink for representation that doesn't really represent much of what I believe in or do.

I still remember when I was eighteen, and a candidate came to my university and spoke to thousands of people in the sun. He had a lot of ideas on how to shake up the economy, create more scholarships and loans for students, health care for every American, and bringing a positive change to life in general. I didn't think he would be able to get it all done, but I liked the fact that he was telling me what he actually wanted to do. The candidate was Bill Clinton, and for a brief time, he made me believe in the power of the politician. I can't quite remember what happened to him.

Chris Jungle graduate with a BA in Political Science (magna cum laude).