Trusting Democracy
About 50% of eligible Americans do not vote in the presidential elections. Ironically, a majority of the non-voting 50% consider themselves Democrats. No surprise people like Michael Moore and Dr. Howard Dean are doing their best to educate and mobilize activists to help recruit new voters.
I’m one of them. I carry around a bag full of voter registration forms, and ask everyone I meet if they are registered. Yesterday I realized however that while most people who don’t typically vote may be Democrats, they all aren’t. Welcome to the first moral dilemma in my career in politics.
He was a nice enough kid, 21 with two lip piercings and a skateboarder t-shirt. He eagerly accepted the registration form, and talked to me about why I was registering people as he filled it out. When he was finished, he said something that hit me like a speeding bus. “The main reason I’m a republican is because they hate queers, and I hate queers.”
In my life I have experienced many levels of hate and discrimination but I wasn’t prepared for this. He spoke with that raw, youthful passion you hear in a Linkin Park song. He wasn’t just tossing the word ‘hate’ around casually, as too many people do. He understood exactly what he was saying. I could see in his eyes that any words from me wouldn’t educate him that night. He will need to learn the lesson the long way, through experience and pain, and may never learn the lesson at all.
His voter registration form is still in the stack with the others, ready to be brought in to the elections office. For a flicker, I thought about throwing it out. After all, he looked me in the eye and told me he hates my mothers, and my father. I suppose that’s the best and the worst thing about democracy. I trust our democracy, as long as people keep teaching and learning. It may be slow to move, but I am to do my part without hypocrisy that form needs to be handed in along with all the rest.
