My un-American blacklist

Midterm elections took place last November. During the months prior, the country was subjected to countless advertisements promoting numerous politicians running for public office. Even though each one was slightly different, they all shared a common theme: What is best for "America?" "Let America be America Again." "America Can Do Better."

"America" this, "America" that. Every candidate seeking election seemed to try to remind people that they are U.S. citizens and to go vote. All this talk about being an American got me thinking - what exactly is American? Or, better put, what are some un-American things when it comes to politics?

I spent a good amount of time thinking about this and I came up with my own personal list of four things I believe are politically unpatriotic.

The most un-American thing out there is simply not voting in the first place. This nation was built on the principle of being a government of the people, for the people and by the people. The idea of a democratic system is that the people decide, by a majority vote, who will lead and represent them.

This is the reason the Founding Fathers selected a president over a king - they wanted to be able to elect their leader, instead of allowing the next generation in a royal bloodline to become the automatic top-gun who calls all the shots.

To this day there are countries run by monarchial dictators who refuse to hear the voice of the people. That's why it made me want to puke when I heard that, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, only 24 percent of Americans under the age of 30 voted last Tuesday - and that number is up by four percent from 2002.

Citizens of Iraq, who had to brave threats of bodily harm and/or death, produced a higher voter turnout than this when they held their first democratic election in over 50 years back in 2005. Americans are taking the democratic masterpiece known as voting for granted, and it is beginning to sicken me beyond words.

Next on my politically un-American blacklist is something so very common - belonging to a political party. When you check one of those little party-affiliation boxes on your voter registration form, you hand over your political independence and subject yourself to the bias of one particular alliance.

There are many people who tend to vote a certain way (which is only natural) but still stay unenrolled - and that, my fellow Americans, is the way to go. They vote for the party that they favor and still keep their political freedom.

Think about it. How many Republicans do you know who dislike President Bush, even with the increasingly unsuccessful war in Iraq, the highest national debt in history and his legalized constitutional violations all being as blatantly obvious as Ann Coulter's Adam's apple?

Not many, right? That's because they've attached themselves to one perspective and can't open their eyes to see the overwhelming evidence staring them right in the face. And if you think I'm only going to attack the GOP, just stop yourselves right there because, despite my many liberal points of view, I am far from a Democrat.

A lot of Dems have promoted their party as the open-minded one, the one who will fight for the average American and the one that has never done anything wrong in its existence. How many Bill Clinton fans either don't know, or don't care, that the former president bombed a factory in Sudan that he believed was making chemical weapons?

(FYI: The factory was manufacturing aspirin, and though no one was killed in the attack, the owner sought $50 million in damages).

Or how about the Monica Lewinsky scandal? Most Democrats shrugged it off as something unimportant and a private matter, but I don't think it's too much to ask for the man who represents my nation in the international arena to respect his wife and his marriage.

Third on my listing of things that are un-American from a political standpoint are exit polls. The politician that a citizen votes for is supposed remain private. It is the voters' business and no one else's. Now, I know that most exiting voters choose to reveal which box they checked off to whatever microphone-wielding field reporter that has chosen to occupy the sidewalk, but that is just because the realization that a vote is private and personal information, which used to be a cherished component of the election process, has been lost deep in shouds of time since the days of the Founding Fathers - but it doesn't have to stay this way. We can change this unfortunate generational trend. The next time you cast a ballot and a TV reporter (or anybody for that matter) asks you who you voted for, give them a patriotic cold shoulder. That way you will uphold this cherished anonymity of the democratic procedure and maybe the Framers will roll back over in their graves.

I could write for days on end about this topic, but, to keep from boring you, I will wrap this thing up. (Drumroll please) Last, but certainly not least, on my Un-American Blacklist is...rigging an election.

Anything that is done to steal an election is a true molestation of a democratic society, and it has happened far too often.

There is a lot of evidence to suggest that President Bush won both the 2000 and 2004 elections due to some sort of fraudulence. It appears that faulty voting machines, hanging chad ballots and some foul play may have won the elections for Bush.

And, again, I'm not one-sided here. I know about JFK's victory in 1960. Even Robert F. Kennedy Jr. admits that his uncle's colleagues used the votes of people who had been dead to defeat his opponent, Richard Nixon.

A Commander in Chief is supposed to be selected by a coalition of proud, free-thinking Americans, and whenever anything happens to thwart the democratic method, we, as a nation, are the victims. Americans need to take a step back and decide whether to turn their heads to these atrocities or to help put our country back on the path of true democracy.