Get Your Shit Together, America

Biden won. Good.

When he was declared the winner by the AP, his speech brought me to tears because he said transgender when naming off Americans. How and what politicians say matters because most of the U.S. population will act based on what the countries leaders are projecting.

With that said, he’s trash, and it physically hurt to vote for him.

My friend said it best when I told her this, “It’s because we deserve better.”

This isn’t about Bernie, or Yang, or whoever else would have been a better candidate for the DNC. This isn’t even about the radical left. It’s about the fact that Joe and Kamala are more of the same. Things won’t change with them in office, it just (hopefully) won’t get worse.

This country has been so politically polarized for so long, and we keep bouncing back and forth between what we consider the lesser of two evils. We let the politicians manipulate us into thinking what they’re saying is right, instead of fighting for the fact that they’re supposed to represent the people.

And the truth of it is, most people don’t want to repress others. Yes, there are exceptions, but it’s not as common as most people have been tricked into believing. Even most of those who vote for Trump aren’t thinking, man, I can’t wait until slavery comes back, and women can’t vote. Some are, but most aren’t.

They’re just thinking of themselves. They’ve been told their religion is in danger. They’ve been told the left are communists (dies laughing cause Biden is soooo far from this is makes me cry) and also that communism will destroy this country. They’ve been lied to and they live in a bubble that keeps reinforcing it. It’s brainwashing.

But wait, the same can be said for those who blindly believe Biden will fix things. They want the programs that the DNC keep saying they’ll provide because they’ve been fucked by the system. But if you think we’re all getting universal health care in the next four years, and having our college debt forgiven, I also have some oceanfront property in Iowa to sell you.

The truth of it is, nothing is ever going to change until the people start holding politicians accountable, and we take our voice back. Gerrymandering needs to go. The electoral college needs to go. Voter suppression needs to go. Mail-in voting should be automatic for every state. I, personally, will never go back to same day voting. Being able to look up each person on the ticket and make an educated decision was amazing.

Also, we need a tiered voting system in place so other parties have a fighting chance. I can imagine people would happily vote for a third party first if they knew their second choice would be counted. It wouldn’t feel like a third party vote was “wasted.”

And all these changes need to happen now. Not a year from now. Not six weeks before the next election. Now. We are more than our vote every four years. We are the ones in charge of this country, and it’s time we start acting like it.