On Nov. 3, 2020, the United States of America conducted its 59th Presidential election, with former Vice President Joe Biden beating incumbent President Donald Trump 51.3% to 46.8%. Four years later, the two once again prepare to face each other on the face of the nation’s political stage.
Trump is entering this election with four criminal indictments, two presidential impeachments, a $354 million penalty, and a ban on “serving as an officer or director of any corporation or other legal entity” in New York state for three years.
Meanwhile, Biden is entering this election having actively supported the genocidal ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people and is the least popular American president to hold office since World War II (with a 56.2% disapproval rate, according to the Washington Post). He is also 81 years old.
I don’t believe that either of these men represents the American people, nor do I believe that they have the country’s best interests at heart. And, as the election approaches, I find myself constantly asking the question, “Why do both of these candidates suck?”
I think the answer to this lies in the fact that politics in America have moved past the interest of the general public and has landed itself in a highly dangerous position. As the saying goes, power tends to corrupt. The politicians who control the inner workings of our country spend more time on Twitter (X?) than they do in their offices. It’s almost laughable… until it’s not.
The disillusionment with the current state of American politics is palpable. Many Americans feel alienated from a system that appears to prioritize power and self-interest over the welfare of the people. The growing polarization, economic inequality, and concentration of power only exacerbate these sentiments.
Many consider the state of American democracy to be dire and its future to be even more foreboding. A poll conducted by the Associated Press found that 62% of adults say democracy in the U.S. could be at risk depending on who wins the upcoming presidential election (72% of whom were Democrats and 55% Republican). Unfortunately, these concerns are not unjustified.
Political science professor Robert Lieberman identified the following factors as challenges to democracy, having studied the fall of democracies throughout his career: polarization, growing ethnic or racial antagonism, rising economic inequality and “a concentration of power under a country’s executive officeholder.”
“For a number of years now, the United States has had all four of these conditions, really for the first time in history,” he said in an interview with Associated Press. “So we’re in a period that’s ripe for challenges to democracy.”
I don’t often consider myself to be a patriot– in fact, there are many aspects of America that repulse me. That being said, I am constantly reminded of the privilege that it is to be an American. While there are many irredeemable American qualities, the many freedoms that Americans hold are not to be taken lightly. One of the most important ones, I believe, is the right to vote.
America’s voting system is, admittedly, deeply flawed and incredibly outdated. But it is still a form of democratic freedom, that many people are not privileged enough to have access to. To have the privilege of voting is not a small matter, and it is certainly not one to be ignored.
As citizens of a swing state, the power of each individual vote is magnified: in Ohio, each individual vote counts. I’m not here to tell you which vote is the right vote to cast, only that casting a vote is a necessity in this political climate. The upcoming election may not offer ideal choices, but abstaining from voting is not the solution. Instead, it serves as a call to action for Americans to actively engage in shaping their democracy and demanding accountability from their leaders. If you are 18 or older, your vote is needed. To register to vote, visit https://olvr.ohiosos.gov/.
