Candidates left no choice—so why vote?
by Jennifer Bentley, sports editor

     I should have gone and voted. I know this. But I just couldn’t work up the interest in who is running.

     Except that I hate Dick Cheney. I am not fond of Republicans for the most part, but Bush lost my vote when he chose Cheney as a running mate.

     Al Gore bores me. I fell asleep during Gore’s portion of the debates. Actually, thinking back, I slept through all the debates.

     Social Security should be a concern, and it is, to a point. I won’t be retirement age for another 40 years; therefore, being dependent on the government is too far off in the future for me to think about that issue. Same thing with medicare. It will be years before I need that. Besides, 401K plans and various other retirement funds will keep me comfortable in life.

     Ironically enough, I didn’t vote, but I do have a retirement plan started.

     The other major topic, education, does concern me. Then again, I have no children in school. I have no children period. If and when I actually start a family, I will be much older. By that time, the newly elected President, be it Gore or Bush, will have come and gone.

     It’s not that I am unconcerned with the problems facing education; it’s just that, well, it doesn’t affect me. If a problem is not staring me in the face on a daily basis, I tend to forget about it.

     If John Kennedy were still alive and running, or someone with talent, I’d be running down to the voting booth right now. Bush has no clue what he would be doing in office, and Gore … Gore is just boring.

     Besides, he ruined me of voting for him when he said he was responsible for the Internet.

     And another thing. It took me a day just to figure out where I should go to vote. I wanted to vote early, but after finally figuring out where I was supposed to go, I arrived only to discover an hour wait.

     I have no patience, I admit, and my non-existent patience shattered when I faced that line. I knew that lines would be worse the day of voting, but still, standing there, on a gorgeous sunny day, the last North Texas would probably see for a while, I just could not force myself to stand there, in line, to vote. So, I walked away.

     I knew when I left that I probably would not be voting, but all I could do was sh

rug. I hadn’t made up my mind who I was voting for, anyway.

     I had been leaning toward Nader, but then again, I would have technically been voting for Bush.

     After weeks of hearing “a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush,” I had decided that Nader would not be my choice on the ballot.

     That left me with Bush or Gore.

     I am not fond of Bush. I come from his home state, but I don’t like him. His capital punishment policy, his policy on the environment and his “compassionate conservatism” irritate me.

     I swore a few weeks ago that if I heard him use the phrase compassionate conservatism one more time, I would turn the TV off. I heard him use that phrase less than three hours after I made that declaration, and true to my word, the TV was off. However, I realized I was missing a ball game and turned it back on only to catch another political ad.

     Gore is no better. There has been speculation that the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal affected Gore in the polls. I don’t believe this. Gore was boring and seemingly unintelligent before Lewinsky, and nothing has changed.

     One weekend while I was sitting on my couch (actually, I was on the floor painting my toenails), my family was discussing politics and their chosen candidates.

     All I could do was shrug and turn on a ball game. It is a depressing thing when the Vikings can hold my attention more than the presidential candidates.

     Neither candidate ever really discussed things that concern me now. Gore talked about his tax-break for kids in college and its benefits for the college bound. But it helps my parents, who pay my tuition, not me. Besides, my tuition and books are already used as tax-write offs; I know. Every receipt I get for school is kept and turned over to my parents, so they can claim the expense on taxes next spring. So, in the end, the tax break for college students is something that really doesn’t interest me.

     It’s not that I’m not patriotic. I hang the flag outside on every patriotic holiday, still get teary eyed during the anthem, and daily say a thank you for the first amendment. But, this year, I just could not work up the enthusiasm or the interest to go vote. It may be the age, it may be the generation, it could be the weather, since Election Day dawned on a cold, drizzly day.

     More than likely, it’s just that, this time, the issues couldn’t capture my interest, and the candidates could never capture my enthusiasm, or my liking.