The anticipation builds as everyone’s favorite time of year inches closer.
No, I’m not talking about summer break; I’m talking, of course, about the fantastic upcoming presidential election!
If you can’t note the sarcasm in my previous sentence and are actually excited about voting for one of the two presidential nominees, you need to wake up.
There’s no trying to make sense out of our candidates and their platforms or mask it with false optimism; we’re screwed, plain and simple.
The fairy tale of a prosperous America ended once the Baby Boomers began talking about Social Security as if it were an endangered species.
That’s why in a hyper, fashionably radical and polarized nation, there’s never been a better time to be an independent.
Loyalty to a political party is dead.
The mutiny on both ends of the political spectrum is barbaric.
Politicians are more preoccupied with their re-election than the welfare of their constituents.
Being uncommitted has never looked so appealing, and sanity has never been so scarce.
Never before have we faced an election that, from the get-go, looked so bleak.
Four years ago, our country found itself on the brink of disaster with everything swirling down the economic toilet. We put our trust in the hands of a young, multiracial senator to bring some of that promised hope and change to Washington.
It’s not like things would have been better with McCain in office, anyway.
Fast forward a few years later, and we remain in a sour economy, a dismal job market, in debt up to our eyeballs with the Chinese and a health care reform bill that after two years still teeters on the seesaw of the Supreme Court.
On the list of the things President Obama did get around to accomplishing: withdrawing from Iraq and making the world safer from one less terrorist.
While both feats are significant, they aren’t enough to appease constituents who depended on “hope” and “change.”
Obama’s re-election is far from a given.
Let’s face it: Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee.
With Santorum out of the rat race that originally started off with what felt like 200 pathetic contenders who thought it’d be cool to drop their name into the hat (anyone else miss Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and Donald Trump?), the only ones left standing to challenge Romney are Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.
Gingrich’s been out of the political game for a while, and Paul makes too much sense for America.
Romney, who fell to John McCain in the 2008 Republican nomination, was once heralded as a centrist. But as Romney was forced to drink the right-wing Kool-Aid to win over Republican voters, he sacrificed his reputation and switched his stance on many issues dear to true conservatives.
To quote my favorite movie, “Juno,” which conveniently includes the simile used by Romney’s campaign manager: “That ain’t no Etch-A-Sketch. That’s one doodle that can’t be undid.”
Voting is a hard-fought right that should be exercised by every American, but don’t be shocked if you find yourself in the voting booth muttering “eenie, meenie, miney, moe…” — that might just be the best way to do it.
Hold your breath and wisely pick the candidate you think you can stomach for the next four years, assuming our country won’t be usurped by China by then.
Colleen Wright is a journalism freshman at UF. Her column appears on Tuesdays.
