I Voted

This is the fourth time I’ve voted for a President of the United States.  My enthusiasm for politics has ebbed and flowed every four years for each election. 

This is the first time I’ve voted since I’ve been developing a politically focused mobile app and for that reason the first time I’ve voted while having serious thoughts about our political system, especially the flaws in it.

As I voted, one flaw screamed in my face: the two party system.

From what I’ve read, seen, and studied about George Washington there are two things I know about him.

1. He was one of the most extraordinary individuals to ever walk this planet.
2. He HATED the two-party system.

I believe some historians credit the development of a two-party system in his time as the reason he left the presidency after two terms.  That and his out of this world humility (see point 1 about his extraordinary nature).

As I went down my ballot I was struck by the amount of research I’d have to do to be an educated voter.  I was discouraged at the thought that very few people are putting in that much effort.

After all the protests, outrage, and anger over the past few months, are people voting?  Are they just voting for the President?  The President is important but he’s one piece to a huge puzzle. Albeit a bigger than average piece.  What do I know about my congressman?  My Attorney General?  My local officials?  Nothing.  I go to the internet, look up their page where they give themselves a portrayal of only smelling like flowers, decide I like their smile, and they get my vote.

That’s the best-case scenario.

What scared me the most was my own biases. 

I won’t write here what my political affiliation is.  What I will say is, as I went down my ballot, the desire to simply choose the person from my party, with no research whatsoever, was terribly tempting.  It was going to be so much work to truly vet these people.  Who has the time?

I desperately wanted to make voting easy.

The way to make it easy was to blindly support a party.

How many others fall into this category?  How many millions voted for all Democrats because that’s their party.  How many millions voted all Republican without any knowledge of the ethics or morals of those they were voting for?

The two party system is a great danger to our democracy.  It has created so much hate and vitriol in the political system, which I’ve written about often. See The Social Dilemma and -ites: Politics for two examples.

The slogan of our app is: “We believe good government starts with informed voters!”

How many of us are informed?

I don’t know how to fix America.  I don’t know how to fix our political system.  I wish I did.  I do know there’s a problem when we blindly vote for those, we *think we agree with.

I’m as guilty of this flaw as the rest of America. 

If anyone has suggestions or answers about ways to actually fix this, I’d love to hear it.  Not hypothetical “tear the system down!”  No, how can we actually start tomorrow to try to fix this?

The app I’m working on will work to keep us more informed about our local leaders so we can hopefully keep them more accountable.  Does anyone even know who their local officials are?

If you’re interested in the app please let me know.  Looking for feedback on it now. The web version can be viewed here: https://politikilocal.com/

If you have thoughts on how to fix politics, please let us all know.  Something has to change.