USA: Massachusetts - Poll of the Dice

This is the second post in a three-part series on the US Presidential election, written from the point of view of a leader that is not old enough to vote.

Let’s roll a die on a checkerboard; If it lands on black, Romney will take the US Presidency. If it lands on red, Obama will.

That’s what it feels like to watch this election unfold if you’re still playing limbo with the legal voting age. At every other street corner, newscasters, political activists, and the occasional stranger, are reminding Americans to get involved in the election and the future. Meanwhile, those of us that can’t vote have nails bitten down to the nub in anticipation of three hundred million strangers that will decide our future. Take education policy, for example. The candidates have varying plans on addressing student loans and college tuition. President Barack Obama plans to increase Pell Grant funding, decrease tuition, and put a cap on student loans. On the other hand, Governor Mitt Romney plans to simplify financial aid, and believes job creation is the key to debt relief. College tuition is a significant investment, and one that I expect to make in about a year and a half. But very few high school students have any say in the student loan policies that they’ll have to undertake, no matter how much it affects us.

This sense of not having control of the future is, of course, not limited to college. I know I have some pretty strong opinions both on the social policies of the next four years (including policies regarding immigration, gay rights and marriage, universal health care, abortion, and contraception), as well as the economic and environmental policies that I hope to see the future president of the United States implement. While I’m looking forward to being able to vote in the next election, it would be pretty nice to be able to vote in this one as well.

Nonetheless, not being able to vote doesn’t have to stop anyone from getting involved. In my district (a town that borders Boston, my state’s capital) students have been distributing voter registration forms, getting in contact with individuals working on the Obama or Romney campaigns, and have been making phone calls to residents of the election’s swing states. Similar efforts have been echoed across the United States. Many people think that voting is the only way to get involved with politics, but these student groups are proving them wrong, or are at least trying to. In my opinion, having some say at all is priceless. So grab a die, and aim for red or black.

Photo Credit - AP