The American Presidential Election

Mood: I feel Fresh.
Currently listening to: As Is - Ani DiFranco

As a freshly turned 18 year old, my attention to politics and the upcoming American Presidential/ Canadian election has not been extremely in tune. I mean, politics generally isn’t something discussed around the cafeteria table in high school with your friends, who would much rather be discussing the latest Miley Cyrus scandal or what happened at Dylan's party over the weekend.

I guess one of the biggest reasons I'm not involved with the upcoming elections are because of my family life. I mean, my parents vote. They always have, and they always have encouraged me and my siblings to vote when we were of age. Both of my parents, however, view voting as a very private matter. I remember being 11 or 12, asking my father who he was going to vote for – the “red’s” or the “blue’s”. My father, being as dramatic as ever, looked at me with an exaggerated expression of shock and awe. “Marc,” he said, “you never ask someone who they’re going to vote for. It’s a personal decision and it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks about your choice.”

I laughed, and re-asked my question. He said again, but more serious this time, it was his only his business who he voted for, and I’d know what he was talking about when I was older. Right.

That said, politics were never really a topic of discussion in my household. If my siblings or I ever had questions regarding politics, my parents would answer them, no problem at all. Occasionally at family dinner parties, I would tune into a political discussion, but nothing that was talked about ever really meant anything to me, because I didn’t directly know what my relatives were talking about. I knew who the ‘big’ leaders of our country were, and I was generally up-to-date if there were any new ‘big’ laws being implemented in Canada. (No, I didn’t go to school on Family Day.) As far I was concerned, that was all that I needed to know about.

About one month ago, I was hanging out with a group of friends. Barack Obama’s smile flashed across the television screen, and my friend Riley asked us how we felt about Obama; if we felt he was qualified for President, etcetera. I replied, saying “I don’t really care about who gets President. It’s the American election, not the Canadian one.” I guess I was being an ignorant prick; Riley was pissed. She fired back, replying “Well, you should show some interest. This is a big deal. Whoever gets this position will affect our nation for a while. You should care about what happens to you and your country.”

Riley put me in my place. It was her words that forced me to realize that the American election really will affect me and my country. Since then, I’ve taken an interest in the Presidential election. I’m trying my best to keep up to date on what each party is saying. I find Sarah Palin very interesting – and amusing, to say the least.

That's what else I find interesting. The American election is being covered by almost every form of media imaginable; there's always something in the news about the candidates, the newspaper keeps us up to date with the latest happenings - and even entertainment mediums like Saturday Night Live or gossip blogs like Perez Hilton keep us the youth of my generation interested in what's going on. (If you haven't already, check out the incredible SNL skit mocking Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric. Freaking hilarious.)

Other peers have complained that the election is one big tabloid - and they're right, it totally is. But really, is that a bad thing? Taking the political information being provided by Americas leaders and churning it into something youth like me can understand only generates more interest and involvement with the election. Having as many people as possible in the know and up to date about what is current is not a bad thing - even if deteriorating individual's images helps us to understand their views and opinions is unmoral.

Looking at the Canadian election, now. I'm trying my best to kept up to date with what's happening. But it's just not as entertaining. That sounds bad; I don't need to be entertained to be interested. But still, when there's another election going on that's a lot more interesting (and by that I mean entertaining), I'm clearly going to follow that one. Call me a bad Canadian citizen, I'm sorry.

I guess that's why I won't be voting this year. I really want to; I think it would be a great experience and it would get me involved as a citizen of Canada. The problem is, though, I really don’t know enough about each party to make a decision; to know that I’ve chosen the best party to represent my country is something I feel is very important. I’m not at that stage yet. As the years pass, however, I want to learn more and be informed about the political parties in our country, and take a political side and official position. When I’m ready, I will vote. I don’t want to vote just for the sake of voting.

To end, I'm totally posting the link to a) the original Sarah Palin interview, and b) the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler mock interview from SNL. Watch them, laugh a lot. It's totally worth 11 minutes of your day. Trust.

a) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP12aNzocSc
b) http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/couric-palin-open/704042/

Enjoy!