The New Continental Divide

By Mike Gilch

Spring 2009

Maybe it's because this was the first time I've been eligible to vote in the national election, but I was absolutely appalled at the general reaction among college students in the post-election days.

Before I get into that, let's get a few important things straight:

-I was neither and Obama nor a McCain supporter. In fact, I've completely lost all faith in our government and the way in which it governs. It's forgotten it's a government; instead, it masquerades as one big, greedy corporation.

-A few friends suggested the idea of not voting at all in protest. While I think their arguments hold some water, I think they're a bit misguided by believing in the two-party system. I voted Libertarian because from what I can tell, it's the only political party who hasn't completely lost sight of what government is supposed to be. I like to hold out hope that if a large enough percentage votes Libertarian each election, knowledge and recognition will increase, and, most importantly, maybe people will bother to get informed.

With this said, let me launch down all your throats. Based solely on what I saw and heard after the election, I have only this to ask: Why are the vast majority of people so quick to blindly follow a candidate based on unimportant things? The Obama supporters are acting like this is the second coming of Christ. He wasn't born in a manger; he was born in Honolulu. He's a politician, albeit a charismatic one, just like the rest of them. Let it be known that I am not knocking anyone's ideas, ideals, or ideologies. I just wish people would bother to become more informed about the candidates they so blindly follow. Obama preaches change. Change, change, change. Political change. Economic change. Social change. Spare change. Sex change. Diaper change. Well, that's all well and good, and for those of you who believe him, for your sanity's sake, I hope you're proved at least somewhat right. We could use some serious change around here. Why is the man calling so vehemently for the tearing down of the political machine run crookedly by money money money --- why is that man's memoir being advertised adjacent to the very text box I'm writing this in? He's making money off his recent run of popularity. Once again, I stress that there's nothing wrong with that. A few years ago, he released the book, and it did nowhere as well in the sales charts as it did during the campaign period. Now that he's known, he can make money off the book. I say, good for him! That's the way capitalism should work, no? However, this is just one example of how he's just another politician, driven by money just as much as every other pseudo-sincere talking head in this country.

And the McCain people! (Notice how I didn't say "the rest of you?" There are more than two parties, people. Do your research.) Did you sign up to his campaign's e-mail list? Did he shoot you a quick message on election night, when Pennsylvania fell into Obama's electoral vote column and it became apparent who the President-Elect would be, saying to change all your Facebook statuses to claim you're moving to another country? " So long, America. I'm moving to Canada." My personal favorites were the ones who said they would move to Europe. Especially France. For real, people? France? You claim you're staunch Republicans who are just frothing over with outrage at the audacity of the American people to elect a black supposed Socialist to the presidency, and your anger has driven you to move to France, possibly the most socialist country on the most Socialist continent on the planet?

You non-informed, misguided, gullible, ignorant, zombified fools.

If you're going to believe in the system, then by all means, go ahead. But wield your vote wisely! Do your homework on the candidates before you pull the lever. Learn what they stand for if possible, not just what the media says they do. Learn what they stand against, that is, if they have actual stances on anything. You couldn't really tell from the debates. Don't be conservative because your parents are. Don't be liberal just because your geography tells you to be. I was raised in Jersey City, just outside of New York, as the son of a family who long lived in the same European immigrant section Downtown all their lives; all statistics say I should be one of the crazy people chanting Obama's name in the streets. But I'm not. I refuse to be a statistic created by the media, talking heads, and pollsters. I'm not kicking dirt in your face and shouting my correctness and others' failure. I'm saying that at least I researched the candidates and made my own, personal, thought-out decisions, whereas so many people I knew simply pulled the lever their surroundings told them to.

Getting back to my starting point, I'm blown away by the post-election fallout. Facebook implied that Obama supporters could now only type in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS AND USE EXCESSIVE PUNCTUATION!!1!! and McCain supporters were all moving to foreign countries, some of which didn't make sense at all for all they were being made into conservative havens. McCain made, what I thought to be, a humble, peaceful concession speech to then President-Elect Obama, but apparently his supporters were so mad at the nation that they decided to leave it altogether.

And we wonder why there's such a divide in our nation?

I see a new divide. The important divide no longer lies between the urban coasts and "Pennsyltucky," no longer does it run down the Rocky Mountains; the important divide now lies between the informed and the ignorant.

As aforementioned, maybe I just haven't noticed it before. Maybe it's because this was the first time I was eligible to vote. But it seems to me, that whether the working people, especially the students, of America voted for a candidate that went on to the Oval Office or one that dropped back into Congress, governorship, or Dukakis-ville, there was always a common thread afterwards: they rejoiced or they shrugged their shoulders, but they all kept on working. The lived life. They wrote music. They kept the arts alive. They kept going.

I don't buy into the corporate morass that America's become. They can't fool me, because I choose to pay attention and be informed. However, I do buy into the country that has always been here: the workers who kept going no matter who they voted for. They knew even if they agreed with what the candidate said he was going to do, the guy with the winning smile probably wasn't going to make those changes, anyway. Government was accepted as too big, and out of hand, and spending money the wrong way. And we all knew it, but we kept going. These people are the America I believe in. They are the reason this country hasn't crumbled under all the hypocrisy its bloated government has put it through.

So people, please. I truly beg of you. Let's close this most important of Continental Divides. Let's be informed. I walked out of my dorm after Obama officially became the President-elect, and someone ran up to me and screamed, "Obama or McCain?" Tehcnically, she didn't ask me anything, but I replied calmly, "Bob Barr" (the Libertarian candidate). She didn't ask who he was (I'm positive she didn't know), but instead replied like a third grader who just threw some other kid's lollipop in the sandbox, "Ha-ha! You lost!"

Really? This isn't some Yankees-Red Sox game at the end of August that has possible playoff implications; it's the election of our leader for the next four years! If you want to be so wildly behind a cause, then support knowing more about the people you vote into office, instead of blindly following the parade out on campus.

I'm not trying to be a party pooper, here. For the people who buy into Obama's proposed policies, I'm glad your candidate got elected, and for your sanity's sake, I hope he does at least some of what he promises to do. But do you even know what those promises are? Or do you just chant his name and his slogan, "Change," blindly? For the McCain-ers, you have a right to be upset over your candidate's loss, but leaving the country? To a Socialist state? Any so-called conservative making those claims doesn't even know what his party stands for. For a party that's so violently against embracing Hispanics and Spanish as an official language, a lot of you sure talk Stupid pretty fluently.

There are more than two parties. There are always more than two candidates, two choices. Wake up, people.

Mike Gilch is a member of the Rutgers Libertarians. He is a Rutgers University freshman, majoring in Journalism.