Imagine for a quick moment that you, not being a nuclear physicist, are sitting at a table drinking coffee with Albert Einstein, Ernest Rutherford, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie and Niels Bohr as they discuss nuclear physics for a couple of hours. How much do you think you'd have to contribute to the conversation? Do you think you'd say anything, or do you think you'd just sit there trying to take it all in and keep up with a dumbfounded look upon your face?
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Today, I sat at a table with five guys, all of whom are close friends of mine, over brunch, and I didn't say a word for more than an hour and a half. We had fresh biscuits and gravy, eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, coffee and mimosas, a brunch for the ages, as we celebrated one of our friends being back in town from grad school. Now, you might ask, how does someone sit at a table with five friends over a celebration brunch like that and not say a word the entire time (Aside from because of having a mouth full of food)? Easy- the person, in this case me, has no opinion or idea of how to communicate or keep up with the topic of conversation being discussed at the table- kind of like the situation illustrated above, except the topic of discussion wasn't nuclear physics and my five friends aren't nuclear physicists; the topic was politics and the U.S. government, and they're just American citizens.
The only C I ever received in school was in my U.S. Government class that I took for college credit my junior year of high school. This was in 2008, an election year, making it a perfect year to take U.S. Government. There was always something to to talk about in class, and there were always some heated debates between the students; however, It was in that class that I really understood that I didn't understand politics, and it was in that class that I began to learn that I had a really hard time learning the American political system. At the time as a 17-year-old, it was easy to use the excuse, "I just don't like politics," as a way to explain my below-normal C grade that I'd received for my lack of class participation and terrible exam scores; however, now that I'm 25, that excuse does not and cannot work anymore. I've gone from simply not understanding politics as a 17-year-old to the extreme of not even being able to hold a political opinion or discussion of any kind as a 25-year-old fully-functioning member of American society. That's not okay.
At today's brunch with the guys, political terminology so simple as "taxes," "foreign policy," and "house of representatives" was being discussed, and I couldn't even define what those things were in my head, much less provide some sort of opinion or insight into the concepts themselves. The truth that I didn't and don't understand democracy or the U.S. government as a whole was never as real as it was today at 12:15 p.m.
But what can I do, and am I alone in this as an American Millennial who grew up thinking I didn't like politics when in reality I just didn't understand them?
This year's election is one of the craziest elections to have ever taken place (so I hear), and sadly, it's the first election I've actually tried to form an opinion around and follow closely in order to make a justified decision on November 8th. It's an election that's frustrated me, made me scoff and made me laugh because I didn't know what else I could do.
Who can I trust? What media outlet is least biased? What friends or family am I going to offend when I have to try to justify why I voted the way I voted in two week? These are the questions that keep my mind racing and make politics and having an actual political opinion hard for a person like me who hates conflict and doesn't understand government (a terrible combination, if I do say so myself). In a day in age that's quick to peg someone with the word "hate" the moment there's disagreement in the picture, it can be scary and overwhelming.
It's a year where it feels like the pressure is on our country, our leaders and the people electing those leaders to make justified decisions, and I simply want to be one of those people. I desire to be an informed and educated American voter who's heard both sides of the argument, qualifying me to make a justified decision, and I desire to care about and to understand the ideology of our leaders and the policies and procedures they want to lead our country with. There's no way this election comes out with everyone understanding why people voted they way they did or with everyone being happy with the end result, but regardless, like any election, it must come out with a UNITED States. I think that's something we can all care about.
-Cliff
Cliff's Note: Never not like or care about something just because you don't understand it, especially when that something runs your country.
