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As a person who didn’t vote for Obama, I voted for the Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, I would like to extend my congratulations to him. I’m sure that he will do a great job in office and bring his promised “Change” to our country over the next 4 years. I’m very optimistic about our future, especially with the staff that he has started to appoint today.

But over the last few months, I’ve been getting a lot of questions regarding why I wasn’t voting for Obama? It was almost like I was committing a sin. People were very hung up on him and if you weren’t pro Obama, people didn’t want to talk to you anymore. I started to wonder, if people really like him or did they just vote for the sexier of the two candidates? Or is it because everyone else was voting for him that they want to vote for him? Or was it because he was just a change from what we currently have, in terms of politically and ethnically? Or do they really think that Obama was the best candidate and believed in what he wants to deliver? Well I didn’t vote for Obama or McCain for various reasons.

First of all our voting system is heavily flawed. Me, living in California, I know where my vote’s going to go. We’re a blue state, and that doesn’t mean we’re sad or cold.  Regardless how I voted, I know my vote would have gone to Obama. That’s the problem I have with the Electoral College system of voting; it’s not the popular vote that actually makes you president, it’s the number value of your state and winning states over, versus winning actual people over. Maybe I’m just bitter from the 2000 Al Gore fiasco, but if we’re a true democracy, shouldn’t the people appoint who’s running our country? Now in this case, where Obama won both popular and Electoral votes, I have no issue, but what if Obama had won the popular vote but McCain won the Electoral vote, people would be up in arms about our voting system, kind of like how I am. Now, if I lived in a “swing state” like Ohio or something, I might have given more thought who I voted for, or maybe not. 

I’m also tired of this two party system. Why are we forced to choose from two people to basically run the free world? It’s pretty like making a choice of the lesser of two evils. It comes down to, I don’t like him so I guess I have to vote for this other guy. Do we really want a true or false type question on something that has a national and global impact? It’s almost like choosing do you want to die slowly and painfully or quick and painless? I’m not saying that Obama or McCain are evil, nor am I saying they’re going to lead our country to death; but I’m not saying that either man is the ideal candidate for the job. Why do we have to stick to two parties? I’m sure there are more than two people in the nation that are capable of leading this country. Just look at the current president, he’s not even qualified and he still got elected.  People should vote who they really want into office, not the prettiest face, or the guy who go the most exposure on CNN, or who got on the front page the most in papers across the country. We should elect people who we want, not… ehhh I don’t like McCain, so I’ll go vote for Obama, or vice versa. Although a third party getting elected, or even getting over 5% vote, is as likely as Esperanto becoming a international language, or even as crazy as a Black man becoming president, one can hope… oh wait!

So why did I vote for McKinney? Did I want her to win? Not really. Did I think she was going to win? No. It was mainly because I wanted to make a stance on the ideas discussed above. Over the last several months I wasn’t planning to vote for a president, only on the propositions. But I started to realize that everywhere I went I kept on getting yelled at for not voting. People would get pretty pissed and wouldn’t talk to me anymore. They said this election was historical and I had to vote! So I gave in and decided to vote, and I voted for McKinney. Now some people brought up a good point… if you don’t vote, then you can’t bitch about how shitty things are. So I casted my vote. It was pretty much a waste, according to some people. Others said asked me if she had any chance of winning, which kinda of pissed me off. You asked me to vote, people, so I did. People are only happy when you vote along their beliefs and yell at you when you don’t. I view my lack of voting for a traditional candidate sort of like having a silent protest, because I don’t believe that you should vote for a presidential candidate that you don’t whole heartedly believe in. People were telling me that it was as stupid way to protest. But people do the similar things all the time. Some vegetarians choose not to eat meat because they don’t support the slaughtering of animals. Their way of protest is just not eating meat. You don’t see all vegetarians standing outside farms picketing the killing of cows, do you? And regardless what they do, most likely the killing will continue. The same is here with me, I decided to silently protest and not to make a lot of noise to take a stance in what I believe in. The election continued and my vote eventually went to Obama no matter what I voted, so stop with the bitching. Anyway, I’m registered as Green, so I voted that way.

Enough presidential crap. The thing that’s bugging me the most is the California support for Prop 8, to ban gay marriages in California. I am not gay, but how amazing heartless and stupid can Californians be? We’re supposed to be the most progressive state in our nation paving the way for change and our future, but I was surprised last night when the majority supposed the ban. I thought that there was no way that this prop would pass, but low and behold, it did. I’m not sure if people got confused with the yes or no thing, or if they hate gays, or if they knew that this goes beyond gay marriage. It’s not about if you likes gays or not, it’s a civil rights issue. It’s a basic human rights issue. Have we reverted back to the early 1900’s? Are gay people considered people? But the most shocking thing to me was seeing the exit polls this morning when over 70% of African Americans voted for the ban. I mean blacks, or any person of  color, should know how it is to be discriminated against. Wouldn’t you think that we’d be more open minded about this type of thing? Pretty soon we’re going to hear that gay parents can’t put their child in the same school as straight families, or they have to use a different bathroom, or they’re going to have to ride in the back of the bus. Does this sound familiar to you? Mary Younkin put it best, “Looks like its going to take a little while longer to curb these instances of bigotry.” I don’t think that this will be the last you’ve heard from this topic.

If you’re interested in the exit polls, you can check them out here.

Well enough ranting. This is actually the second time I wrote this because I accidently hit back on the browser window and lost it all the first time. There will be some edits as soon as I read it over. Anywho, congratulations to President-Elect Obama. You ran an amazing race, and I’ve seen first hand all your supporters. I am sure you’ll bring our country in the right direction.