OPINION: Reviving democracy means voting wisely

This Halloween, many will celebrate the holiday by dressing up as mummies, zombies and other mythical creatures of the dead. It is fitting that this day falls at the end of October, a week before Virginia elects a new governor, because it foreshadows something that is truly terrifying:

 

The death of democracy.

 

On this day, OpenSecrets.org has listed super Political Action Committees as having total receipts of $98,394,524, largely made of unregulated funds that have been raised through taking advantage of a weak campaign finance system.

 

This is happening in the modern-day U.S. political arena where money matters: a report by the nonpartisan anti-corruption organization Represent.Us found that the better-financed candidate wins 91 percent of the time.

 

That is nearly $100 million of tapped political influence straight from the pockets of the country’s richest, undoubtedly drowning out the voice of the everyday American.

 

Gerrymandering—the corruptive but somehow legal way for public representatives to draw their own districts to ensure their reelection—further deteriorates the amount of say the people have in our own cities and keeps representatives in power longer than I have

been alive.

 

Let us not forget the U.S. plays by “winner-takes-all” rules in the electoral college—in contrast with many other Western democratic systems—which dictates that if a politician wins by a hundredth of a percent, he or she effectively wins every vote within a given district

or state.

 

In the 2016 presidential race alone, we witnessed how your geographic location within the country also determines how much influence you have in the outcome of a race. Data compiled by the U.S. Census and fivethirtyeight.com showed that a single voter in the Arizona had 558 times more voting power than a voter in California because of Arizona’s status as a highly-contested battleground state, where one vote has a better chance of influencing the race as a whole.

 

Both political parties in the U.S. see record-low favorability ratings. Grouped polling data combined by the Huffington Post showed a 49.7 percent unfavorability rating for Democrats, and a higher unfavorability rating of 56 percent for Republicans, but U.S. citizens continue to throw their unwavering support behind the two party system, further entrenching our democracy in a two-party system that often forces people to choose between two unfavorable candidates.

 

The picture I have so far painted does not showcase a fully functional democracy checked by the will of the people, but rather a political system which may look like a democracy on paper but in reality is ruled by the political elite who know how to befriend large donors and cash in political capital to consolidate power.

 

Let us look at the silver lining: Virginia is the only state smart enough in the U.S. to not allow consecutive term limits for the coveted office of governor. We, the voters, thus have a moral obligation to vote in a strong candidate in our office. I will not tell you who to vote for, but rather encourage you to vote your conscience.

 

You will likely not be the deciding factor of this race in any way—our system of democracy has ensured that—so use your vote to choose the candidate you most want to win, not the political party you can bear with the most.

 

Voting for any candidate simply because of their party affiliation—instead of voting based on character or moral judgement—entrenches society into a political system which strips the people of their influence.

 

I hope, more than anything, that everyone takes their vote seriously. It is precisely because of the corrupted state of our political system that we must seriously consider who we are voting to represent us. Through voting in moral, ethically-sound individuals in our public offices, we help restore the people’s influence, and furthermore, raise our democracy from the dead.

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