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Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. -Roald Dahl

Friday, February 24, 2012

Power of the People


“Truth is not determined by majority vote.”  Doug Gwyn.

Elections are over, finally. Amongst all the screaming, cheering, bribing and campaigning, I’m wondering, why did you vote for the people you voted for? Was it because of peer pressure? Actual campaign promises? Friends of friends?

I am increasingly perplexed by the number of people who cast their ballots without realizing what they’re voting for. Yet the entire process was created in order to give people a say. It takes only a couple of minutes to ask candidates why they’re running, and how they plan to achieve what they’re promising, yet why don’t voters ask?

SRC elections aside, the bigger picture entails the importance of voting as a concept. Voting is a privilege and a necessity. Indeed, why would you not vote when the results will affect you? Regardless if your intended candidate wins or not, it an opportunity to have your opinion at least heard if not fully represented. If you believe in voting blank, vote blank. If you believe in the capacity of a candidate, support him. If you believe in a political party, vote for it!
Nevertheless, beliefs should not exist arbitrarily. Truly do your research and evaluate options before making a concrete decision, for an undesirable political trait discovered months is anything but ideal.
The most important thing to realize however is, that at the end of the day, majority rule is never just it. So your political party didn’t win. So what? There is still so much that an individual group or person can accomplish without an electoral position or a political persuasion. And too often with political power comes potential bias, and with that, the ease of corruption.

It is easy to forget in a world of politics and majority rule that the individual does matter. It is often difficult to remember that political figures are supported by dozens of hard-working people. It is all too simple to assume that only power profits. Yet no quote rings truer than that by Louis Brandeis, that “the most important political office is that of the private citizen.” And what are we but investors in our own societies?  

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