If [ insert candidate] wins the Election, I’m moving to [ insert country]

I’ve never seen a more polarized election. Not that I’ve been around for a whole lot of them, but this one seems a lot different.

The last election was energizing. This election season/year/years feels never-ending and loud, and out of control. It’s tough to argue reason with somebody that keeps yelling nonsense/lies at you. There’s only so much energy you can muster to put into the argument before you’re fed up with the ignorance and the yelling and the talking over you, so much so that you walk away… tune out.

I am very passionate about my political views, but the idea that I am going to start an argument with the opposing party is almost more than I can handle. Not because I don’t want to hear what they have to say, or I’m not interested in their point of view. But when I do sit down and try to have an adult conversation on the topic, I don’t hear their voice. I hear the news channel’s voice, their candidate’s voice, and never their own. Why is that?

Have we tuned out so much that the only thing that gets through is extreme emotion? Hate on one side, Love on the other. I feel like we’re in the middle of a battlefield between Good and Evil, and I’m not sure that we (the people) are going to win no matter who wins the battle. All I’m seeing right now is salvo after salvo of lies and aggression being thrown about the battlefield. And we, the people in the middle, are getting hit. Not the candidates. They muster on.

We have two very opposite front-runners, not one of them really liked. One that attracts masses for the circus and the emotional ups that his rallies provide, with the emotional release through the yelling out hate speech directed at women, minorities, immigrants, oh, and did I say women? What I cannot understand is all the anti-government speech, anti-establishment speech, as he’s getting ready to become the representative of the government, as he’s getting ready to become the establishment. And the other candidate which is viewed as a chameleon, always adjusting and adapting. I’m not sure that that’s the worst thing to be in politics. Oh, and did I mention that she’s a woman? I will, just in case you’ve been living under a rock these past almost 3 years that we’ve been talking about a female presidential candidate.

If you were to look at the voting poles, you’ll see a country split down the middle. But I question those poles. Somehow they always seem to show exactly what the news agency is trying to show. How does that go? Whatever you’re looking for, that’s what you’ll find? Something to that effect.

I wonder if there are “normal” people left in this country anymore… People that want to have adult conversations, respectful of the others’ opinion, listening, and discussing issues, not insults. I wonder if there are any “normal” people left in this country that actually educate themselves about the issues instead of blindly repeating what they hear on TV. I wonder if there are normal people left in this country that will actually vote with reason, and wisdom, and respect in November, or in the primaries, or at the conventions… I wonder if there’s hope left for this great country of ours for an educated populace, that makes decisions based on knowledge, not rhetoric.

Maybe that’s why the “how can I move to Canada” search term spiked to over +350% after the first Super Tuesday in March. The “normal” people are actually considering moving to another country. This is absolutely baffling. This is a country that was built with people from every nation on this planet, a country that was stitched together one square mile at a time, with blood from every nation including the native nations, together building a new nation, with elevated ideals, and welcoming to all. It is baffling to me that this nation, this nation that took everyone in and made us all want to make something amazing of ourselves, this country has reached this point where hard-working people want to leave because they’re not being heard anymore.

The needs of the many are being pushed away in favor of the needs of the few. We’re not being heard anymore. The political system is clouded with lobbyist fighting for corporate interest, shareholders and multi-national corporations that pray to the god of greed. Their funds are larger than our funds. They win. And we get Citizens United. So, we lost the House, and the Senate, and we’re about to lose the Presidency. Well, when I put it like that, I’d want to move, too.

So people are considering moving to other countries. I find that sad and fatalistic. The country isn’t as split up as some of the media channels would have you believe. They’re giving you circus. They’ve taken away the bread slowly, over the years. Salaries have stagnated in growth, prices have increased, in everything but gas. The bread is thin, and thinning. We’re left with circus, louder and louder, more and more brutal.

Julius Caesar: “Give them bread and circuses.”

Yeah, I understand why you want to move. But I don’t think you should. The grass isn’t greener anywhere else. (No offense Canada. I love your green grasses, but that’s not the point). I think you — YES YOU, the one reading this! — have given up too easily. I think you’ve gotten used to the easy life, and think that that’s how it always was, and that’s how it should always be. It is only this way because people have fought for this, for every little thing. Because women have fought for the right to vote. Because women have fought for the right to work, AND GET PAID. It is only like this because Dr. Martin Luther King fought for African-American rights! It is only like this because unions fought for better working conditions. It is only like this because we fought for everything we’ve ever had! Don’t you see that? None of our rights were given to us! We fought the Brits for our rights to not pay them taxes!

I see a lot of people who’ve lost their fight. And I mean the inner and outer fight. Depression levels have skyrocketed, addiction to pain medication numbers have skyrocketed. Moving to Canada is a thing now. And some even want to move to Mars (but not for political reasons 🙂 ). I never pegged us for a nation of pain-avoiders and give-it-up-ers. But in this election, I’m being proved wrong. There’s this colossus of a country that when pointed in a direction cannot be stopped, and I fear for the path that we’re being maneuvered onto.

I think it’s time to wake up. Time to stop complaining and do something about it.

The grass is greener mentality is why we have a 50% divorce rate! The grass is greener mentality is why people are considering Canada as a viable option for living their American Dreams. The grass is greener mentality is why we’re killing our planet, too. Shouldn’t we stop and try to fix what we broke first, before even considering leaving it behind, before divorcing our partner, divorcing our country, and divorcing our planet? Granted, some things cannot be fixed. But you don’t leave this country without even trying to fix what’s happening. You cannot be like that.

This is not me trying to make you stay. The world is a beautiful place. Go explore it. No, this is me trying to wake you up out of your long slumber, oh sweet giant that you are, America.

Where do you think could be better than here? What do you think your ancestors wanted to achieve? What do you want to give your children, and your grand-children? Shouldn’t we give them a country in bloom? Shouldn’t we give them rights, the same rights that you still think you have? Shouldn’t we fight to get our country back? Let’s start with this election. Let’s start today.

I did. I am making a stand, maybe not unlike Cluster’s last, I’m hoping that my attempt is not utterly futile. I am trying to wake the giant, to give you water and food for thought, to bring us away from this dangerous path we’ve been pushed onto.

Go vote. Vote with your money in supporting the companies you like, vote for companies that treat their employees right, that treat the planet right. Vote with your votes in supporting the candidate that brings us together, not divide us. Vote with your heart and be kind to yourself and others. Choose happiness and choose to take action. Being depressed feels like you don’t have any options. But you do. There’s always options. One of them is to leave. The other one is harder; the other one is choosing to stay, and face the choices you’ve made, and fixing your mistakes, and standing up for yourself, for your fellow man and woman, for your fellow animal, for your fellow plant, for your fellow and mother, Earth. Stand up for this country and yourself.