Nothing Even Matters...Really Though?
What matters this political election? It probably depends on who you ask. We've heard that #Blacklivesmatter, we want to believe gender equality matters, and with the astronomical cost of higher education we certainly tell ourselves that a secondary education matters.
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As spectators of this amazing race we have seen protestors from the #Blacklivesmatter group confronting candidates, from Hillary Clinton's Charleston Carolina Event , the shut down of Bernie Sanders Event in Seattle Washington . Saturday Night Live has played on many candidates including Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Through the shows satire we have seen Carson portrayed as an airhead, Trump as tactless bigot, Clinton as two faced and desperate, and Sanders as a crazy old man who is always always shouting. Though these representations are a bit of a simplification of the individuals they do not fail to hit the nail on the head.
In order to make an informed voting decision and to live up the the right and responsibility of voting that we are granted as citizens of America, it is imperative to educate ourselves on the issues. What issues we choose to focus on depends mostly on who we are. Think about the reasons why people align themselves with political parties to begin with. Members of these parties share similar views on important issues and so we support them so as to serve our own personal agendas. Comedian John Leguizamo famously said, “Latin people for Republicans are like roaches for raid,”. Leguizamo extrapolated by saying that essentially the Republican party was not concerned with people like him so it was paradoxical for Latin Americans to identify with the Republican Party.
Its important to note the correlation between party affilaition/views on issues and identity. As an Afro-Latina woman, and as a student many of my concerns are all to do with my identity. I am concerned with the efforts of the #Blacklivesmatter movement, as well as immigration reform, I am concerned with the issues of police brutality and systemic injustice against people of color, I am also concerned with a woman's right to choose what happens to her own body and earn as much as a man (and a white woman, intersectionality is key!), and currently I am very very concerned with how we are going to make college affordable for kids everywhere. This combinations of concerns are uniquely mine but I am not alone. All of us hold issues close to our hearts because of their level of pertinence...and that is Aye Okay! In fact we need to correctly identify what issues matter most to us, formulate our stances on them and support like minded politicians so that we can someday see the change we pine for.
Fantastic post. I appreciate the depth of this discussion--not just the what, but the great pathway you take to rationalize through what feels like dialogue here. This, to me, feels like the Socratic method in action--the first part of a hopefully ongoing dialogue!
ReplyDeleteI agree that we all have our own set of issues that help us define, in a way, how we lean politically. Personally, immigration reform is a big one for me too, because even though my family came to this country legally, the process is incredibly unreliable and lengthy as well as extremely expensive. So I can understand the idea behind Latin people not supporting Republicans for that sole reason - especially with what Republicans have been saying about Muslims lately. But it can be really hard to find a politician that matches a person's opinion on even most issues. Someone can know exactly what their stances are on a lot of issues that matter to them, but there might not be a specific nominee that echoes those feelings even remotely. As a result, that person might just lean towards whichever candidate is in the party that closely resembles that person's ideals, all without really knowing what the candidate stands for. So someone might not really agree with Hillary or Bernie, but they would vote for them anyway just because they know that they're are "supposed to be" a Democrat.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this made any sense, I do agree with what you said and that's how people should vote but this was just something I thought about.