I Don't Do Politics, Me.

Booooooo!

So the Conservative party would appear to have kept their place as the leaders of our government.
I'm not happy about it and neither are any of my facebook friends it would seem.
(That's the one good thing to come out of this- I know I'm definitely not mates with a bunch of dickheads.)

Most who know me know I'm not really one for politics. I tend not to get too drawn in to the discussion of politics because in one way or another it always ends in an argument. Or just as bad, you're all agreeing with each other and just impotently ranting about it to the other people that are already on your side.

I don't really follow much in the way of political news but it would be foolish and nigh impossible to block it out of my life altogether.

Today's news feed is awash with people asking "How the hell could you vote for the Tories?" and "Why did you vote for UKIP/Greens/other and waste your vote?" and "Why didn't you vote at all?"

Well they're all easy to answer:
1) People vote Conservative because they share their beliefs. Same reason as to why people voted for Labour or UKIP or Greens or whatever.
2) People didn't vote because they don't see the point.

I voted Labour.
The Labour Party has many aspects to it's policies that I believe are good. I also believe that the Green Party holds many good ideas in it. I would have liked to have voted for the Greens but my main concern was to get the Conservatives out and the best way to do that was to back their main legitimate contender.

I have learned that this is called 'tactical voting'.
This is because, no matter who else comes along with good ideas (such as the Green party) the two parties with the largest amount of support are the Tories and Labour.

Now it is clear to anyone that the Conservatives are more concerned with keeping the rich rich and the poor poor. That is fairly inarguable.
That is their prerogative.
They are people born into money or having capitalised on making money and of course they want to keep it. Most people would, especially if they are motivated by institutionalised greed. But in order to do that they must stick to what they know and keep themselves, in class terms, above the poor.
I cannot blame them for that. I could ask that they change but that seems fairly unlikely.

In the same respect, those that voted for UKIP because they have ill-conceived notions of patriotism and racist beliefs have only done what they feel is right.
Again: when your views and beliefs are so strong in your mind (no matter how wrong they may seem to others) then they are what drive you to your life choices.
If you're racist then you hate towards other races and that can blind you from looking at other/better options.
I could ask that they change but that seems fairly unlikely.

I can't state that Labour are the best option but I can say that, had they been voted in, they had many policies that could have changed this country's current state for the better.
But that is still a lot of 'if's and 'maybe's. Political promises are notoriously found later on to be bullshit.

You see, despite my belief that the Tories need to be voted out, I'm still not certain about anyone else that could be voted in.
The last Labour government didn't do the best job all round.
The Green party doesn't look like it could run the country.
UKIP supporters seem to be solely comprised of blinded hateful bigots.

I genuinely have no faith in our government to justly and effectively govern this land properly.

I do believe that our system is broken.
I've believed that for a long time.
That is why I haven't voted since I was 18.

I can't see a system that is apparently in place so that the citizens can have their say in how their society is run turned into something so far removed from anything anyone living in that society can relate to being good for anyone.
I can't see a society still so divided by class, race, apathy and economic/social/personal depression ever being able to see it's way through difficult times AND be asked to vote for the same people that always end up screwing them over.
I can't see a way out and I think others can't either.
That, I believe, is why people don't vote.

When all you see on political debate programmes or Question time or news interviews is people shouting their opinions at each other or defending themselves and their actions and none of it having any real world repercussions to your own personal lives, why would you want to vote?
When all you see, come every election, is politicians with little or no connection to the people they supposedly represent brown-nosing the populace with promises and begging on bended knee for you to vote for them, why would you want to vote?
When all you see in footage from the House of Commons is what looks like two gangs of kids shouting abuse at each other across a room while all the rest cheer or boo like a fucking pantomime in stead of actively getting shit done, why would you want to vote?
When you finally see something you believe is worth voting for and then you see the odds which stack up against that ever coming to pass in a system that is flooded by 2 main parties, why would you want to vote?

It isn't being apathetic- it's being disillusioned.

When Russel Brand came along this year to act as someone asking on behalf of non voters why they should vote, I got behind that idea. I wanted someone to come along and tell us why we should vote. Not a reason for why we should vote for them but why we should vote AT ALL!
That didn't happen.
What happened for me personally was seeing how fucked we were under the Tories that I desperately wanted to vote them out.
That is why I voted. And that is a terrible fucking reason to vote. THE WORST.

I am grateful for the opportunity to vote. But in a lot of ways I don't see that it works. Not in the current way that we use it.

I will probably vote again.
But I hope that when I do, it can be for something that I believe in, and that it can seriously help to make a change.