The November Election - Disenfranchised and Disgusted

No, I haven't written anything political this year.  Why should I bother?  I would just be repeating my comments from the last election cycle.  Perhaps I should have said something.  Ron Paul ran for president again this time, and did seem to do better this time around.  The Republican Party didn't merely ignore him this time, but went out of their way to actively snub and exclude him.  Naturally, he still didn't get the Republican nomination, so I cannot vote for him in the general election, but I got to vote for him in the Republican primary, and I think a lot more people heard about him and his libertarian-oriented ideas, including the problems with our foreign policy and the economy.  A healthy understanding of the economic basics, especially Austrian economics, can only be good.

Nonetheless, just like in 2008, my only presidential options are going to be the Democrat and Republican nominees, Obama and Romney, and neither one of them makes me thrilled to be an American, much less give me any good reason to vote for one of them.  Their differences are minimal, and we should all be disgusted that, as voters, we have been given so few choices on the ballot.  How can anybody claim we're truly free, when we are not free to choose the candidate of our choice? Where's the diversity, the plurality, the democracy that the United States is supposed to have?

I would vote for any third candidate on the ballot, just out of protest, although my preferred choice is the Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.  Unfortunately, I don't think any third party or independent candidates made it on Oklahoma's ballot this year, just like last time.  So I am truly disenfranchised by our electoral system, even though I have the alleged "right" to vote.  Oklahoma's ballot doesn't allow for write-ins, either.  So all I can really do is vote in lower races but not for president, and hope that my undervote will be counted and noticed.

So I haven't bothered to write anything political this year.  I could have.  I could have really gotten upset trying to explain to people just how unfree we truly are.  I could have talked till I was blue in the face, gotten my blood pressure up and had a heart attack.  But many people would continue to mistakenly think that they are free, and that I'm just some cranky nut not worth worrying about.

Instead, I'll just take advantage of the relative freedom that I do have, and live my life as best I can, and hope enough people somewhere get the message and figure out something effective to do about our sorry state of affairs, because I'm not really sure what I can or should do about it. Living my own life is hard enough.

So come election day, why bother? Why should I have to vote in order to have the 'right' to complain, when I am not allowed to vote for the candidate(s) of my choice?  How can I possibly be represented in the system without candidates who actually represent my positions?  The electoral system is rigged in the most basic and fundamental way, and you have to be pretty blind not to see it.