I [heart] voting!

It’s Election Day! Hooray!

I know it’s cooler to be all cynical and bitter about “elections” and “voter fraud” and the current state of our “democracy,” but I can’t help it — I still love voting. It makes me all giddy and chipper. (Maybe because I grew up in a couple of dictatorships, but I’m not sure eight-year-old me really noticed that so much.) Watching the results…now that’s a bit more nerve-wracking. But the moment of actually voting always makes me feel like I’m doing my part and making a difference and all of that. Whee! Goofy and idealistic? Maybe. But it’s better than complaining about everything and not voting, right?

Plus I like the clunk-CLUNK of the big lever and the snap-snap of flicking the switches, at least on the machines here in New York. It’s bizarrely satisfying, like, yes, I did that! Clunk-CLUNK! I imagine the touch-screen machines aren’t quite as satisfying, unless they make a triumphant beeping sound at the end. Or a trumpet fanfare – tada! You VOTED! Yay! And then they shoot out confetti. I bet a lot more people would vote if the machines acted all excited afterwards. Hee! Like those poor employees at Cold Stone Creamery (the ice cream place) who have to sing every time someone leaves them a tip, except the machines’ enthusiasm would probably be more believable.

Me, I see democracy as something that only works if you believe in it. If everybody was like, oh, why vote, there’s no point, grump grump, then of course elections wouldn’t make a difference. It’s like in Peter Pan, where lots of people have to believe in fairies in order to save Tinkerbell’s life. Well, the more people believe in democracy (i.e. the more people vote), the better it’ll work. (Yeah, yeah, here’s where the cynical joke goes about fairies and democracy not being so far apart in terms of degrees of realism.)

That’s what I think, anyhow, but I’m an optimist, and I like people, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

So if you’re old enough, run out and vote! Seize your one day of democratic power! Hooray!

Quote of the Day: “You don’t have to have superpowers to be a hero.” – Hiro, on Heroes