The government is officially in a state of “shutdown”, but that’s not as meaningful or ominous as it sounds. And most people probably welcome it.
A recent study showed that if “None of the Above” was candidate in the 2016 election, he would’ve destroyed both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. In fact, the “Nobody” vote would have carried 445 electoral college votes to Trump’s 71 and Clinton’s 72.
This is what you could safely call a failed political system.
In basically every election, we’re given two unappealing candidates and told that they are the only two options. And despite the violent admonitions by either side, they’re basically the same candidate.
Some people cling on those little scraps of difference and blow them up to be extremely meaningful. They begin to identify with the candidate and stake everything on their winning.
Some people hold their nose and vote for their preferred candidate as a lesser of two evils, forgetting that the lesser of two evils is still evil.
Others have worked up a hatred of the opposition candidate so much that they will vote for anyone who has a chance of beating him or her.
The rest of the people—the “None of the Above” people—who have better things to do on Election Day aren’t compelled by the false dichotomy of American politics. They either don’t like either candidate enough or realize that it’s all smoke and mirrors. Alternatively, they are too ignorant or apathetic to put forth any effort.
Their preferred candidate is not on the ballot and may not even exist, and that’s the point. The system wasn’t designed for perfect candidates because the perfect candidate doesn’t exist. And that would be okay if we had a government that stuck to its legitimate role.
Instead, we have a government that wildly oversteps its original purpose of protecting inalienable rights and acts instead to help some at the expense of everyone else.
And it doesn’t matter what candidate is elected.
Donald Trump, by most measures, is the most anti-establishment president ever and what did he do in his first two years that was noticeably different than his predecessors? He made the Tax Code marginally better. He orchestrated a tentative peace on the Korean Peninsula. And he has promised to bring troops back from Syria.
Those are all respectable accomplishments. But Trump has failed his supporters. Spending is astronomical. There’s no progress on the highly-anticipated border wall.  And Obamacare is still a juggernaut weighing down the economy.
I, and presumably many of the non-voters around the country, want real change. We want a return to constitutional government (and spending). We want real free trade with the world. And we want our military protecting the homeland, not intervening in other nations’ civil wars.
Many frame the government shutdown every few years as an awful catastrophe. I think the government isn’t shut down enough. Instead of closing parks, let’s close the Department of Education for good. Instead of the IRS not providing customer service, how about eliminating the income tax altogether? Instead of closing down the Smithsonian, I suggest we close down Congress.
The American people aren’t afraid of nobody governing the country. From the looks of the voter rolls, they welcome it.
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