Election Day--- Your Vote Counts [OR NOT]

It's only 834 and I have already seen about 7 blogs and 10 FB statuses concerning today's election day... honestly I don't care. I don't have a civic duty to do anything... Yes this may be a negative attitude to have but you know what, I realized in 2008 that my votes don't matter one bit... I realized last year that my votes don't matter. I'm not really republican but I'm definitely not for the democratic side of abortion and things like that... but that's not even what this is about. It's about the fact that we "get" the "right" to vote yet when do we actually see the benefits of those votes....

I was a supporter of Bill Clinton, even with his scandalous love affair, because honestly he was doing pretty damn good things for this country. Our jobs were pretty high in numbers, our debt was pretty low. However, I think this is simply because Clinton had the country before it took a "shit". He was replaced right before 9/11 and Bush kinda got this big pile of crap not long after being in place.

Bush was an idiot. He lacked social skills, leadership skills, and well he just wasn't fit to run this country. He made a lot of mistakes and more times than not he failed to own up to it. He definitely wasn't the worst president ever but far from the greatest. However, it can be said this country definitely went to hell when he was in office. Between 9/11 happening and the accusations of why we really went over to Iraq. People are always going to have their opinions. Some say Saddam wasn't a threat to us, but anyone who is helping the man who killed our people or making threats to our presidents [previous or present] is a threat to us. I think Bush had a lot of pressure on him and in all of that, he did the right thing. Imagine what had happened if we had just ignored what happened to our country. America would be looked at as a big giant "puss" and everyone in their mother would have attacked us. We have since done great things for Iraq. Afghanistan is definitely a different story but this has been ongoing since BEFORE Bush! But I guess everyone is going to blame him for the Operation: Desert Storm stuff too. I mean really, it's not just  the president's decision, although he is the main decision maker.

Anyway... In 2008, I watched every single debate. I did my research about all the candidates and I decided to place my vote on one matter alone; WHO WOULD BETTER SUIT MY HUSBAND AND THE FELLOW TROOPS! I stood in line 4 hours to put in my vote for McCain, knowing that he wasn't going to win, simply because of his stance as a republican and the fact that a black man and a woman were running [no offense to anyone]. I knew that people wanted to make history. If anything, I would have rather Hillary win simply because I knew that much of Bill's run was made with her help. She's done amazing things in office as Senator and really could change this country, and not just say she would. Of course there were things I disliked about her [abortion, taking away gun rights, etc] but she was the lesser evil out of the two.

I refused to vote for Obama simply because I knew his votes was majorly a part of RACE. I know that many people did not vote for him for that purpose, but come on, we all know he won because he is "black". The thing that got me about him was the fact that he was not even born in America. He is muslim, which doesn't completely bother me but I can see where it would cause conflictions with this war. He was making open ended promises to people to get votes that were completely impossible [like pulling all the troops out of Iraq by 2010, etc]. He refused to say the pledge of allegiance or put his hand over his heart [like all Americans do] up until the point that people were openly bashing him for such things. These are just a FEW of the reasons I felt he was "unfit" to run our country.

I chose to vote McCain for a very big reason. He has military experience, was a prisoner of war and really knew what to expect with where this war with Iraq was heading. While I know he would not have pulled the troops out, I do think that with him, we had the best shot for making this war with Afghanistan a little less "painful". He knows how war works, he can empathize with our troops and he could hopefully do a better job than Bush who lied about his military experience. To me, there is no greater "Commander in Chief" than someone who has been in their shoes. McCain overall seemed to be an honest man. He didn't make promises he didn't keep and he tried his best to show people that he wasn't Bush, although people just wouldn't have it... So I stood in line for my 4 hours and I put in my vote for all of whom I thought could support my husband and his fellow soldiers effective and pick this country up out the grave it has become over the past decade.

Needless to say, my vote meant nothing. I had to sit there as people bragged about how a "black" man was president... I had to hear people say things like "I voted for him because I knew this would make history." or "I never even watched a single debate, I don't even know a thing about them, but he's a BLACK MAN!" It's scary to think that someone can win a race simply for the color of his skin and not because of what he stands for. For some, I know this isn't the case, but for many it was... This is when I decided that I would NEVER vote again. I was 19, it was my first time to vote EVER and I wanted to make a difference and I didn't. I guess I kind of felt defeated. We can all say since he's gotten into office, he hasn't been an ounce better than Bush. He fails to take responsibility. He lies about his actions and he is just not a good president. While I do get sick of people bashing him and making up these ridiculous rumors about him, I do thin that he is not right to lead our country, just as I thought Bush wasn't. I'm ready for 2012 and I pray Americans have more sense next time around.