On the eve of the presidential debate, why vote or not vote?

Let me get straight to the point: I agree more with hip hop artists Lupe, Kendrick, and J.Cole about their disenchantment with this campaign season and electoral process than with Samuel L. Jackson's sentiment that America needs to wake the f%ck up to the Obama's achievements over the last 4 years. 

I really do. And it is not a stance I came to recently either.  It have felt quite apathetic towards this election season for sometime.

I understand that given the long struggle for civil rights for Blacks and other minorities in America, some people believe that it as insensitive (and naive) for a Black person to decide that they will not vote. In fact, in light of voter suppression laws spreading like wide fire across the country, I do not take my right to vote as a Black African woman in America lightly.

But first, I think that the right to vote in itself guarantees that the enfranchised person has a right to abstain. And that is important to assert.

I also think that the larger idea which a lot of people, including but not limited to hip hop artists, bring forth through vocalizing their decision not vote is that one should be able to critique institutions and political traditions without others assuming that one takes them for granted. In other words, people should be able to choose to not participate in an institutional tradition without people questioning whether or not they value the right associated with the institutional process itself. I really believe that Lupe and others are indefinitely grateful for the struggles and sacrifices which have afforded them the kind of political freedoms that Black people and other disenfranchised minorities (sort of ) enjoy now but that does not mean that they must be proud of what the institution is.

I think that the silencing or shaming of people who want to distance themselves from this election period comes from the engrained belief that there is no alternative to our political organization and electoral or campaign process. I have read many critiques about Lupe's twitter "beef" with Roland Martin and DL Hughley's and these critiques often center around the argument of Lupe is always criticizing something or someone without offering a solution or that he needs to suggest a solution if he believes that there is a problem. First of all, I think that it is more than okay to cite a problem without offering a solution. I do not believe that Lupe is speaking out of self righteous indignation. I am convinced that half of the solution is knowing the problem.

But going one step further, I believe that America's institutions appear to be so primitive and long standing that most of us lack the political will and the imagination to re-conceptualize what being without such an electoral process - with long campaigns fulled by private interests, fundraising money, and lots of propanganda - is like. Recently, I have been reflecting on the idea that "the only thing new is the history you do not know". I constantly remind myself that processes and institutions are man made and can be changed if they no longer align with the interests and beliefs of the people. What is now a norm was once a novelty. People around the world live in different political organizations - from communes to collectives and non-state entities (thank Swarthmore for opening my eyes to this) - and they are just as intelligent as we are and...they live on. I am even starting to wonder if statehood is the only basis for political organization and if we can be imaginative about what governance by the people, for the people, and with the people truly looks like.

So contrary to Samuel L. Jacksons belief, I am not sleeping, I am day-dreaming of what a different political process would look like.

The other side of this voting argument is the actual Obama versus Romney issue. For me, Romney is indefinitely out of the question. With early voting already on the way in some states, I can not believe that he ran the election campaign that he in did and expects to win. He is a highly inconsistent. I am not in the constituent that he cares about and he is not concerned about the issues that I care about (proudly a 47 percent-er). I'm not crying over this. I even listen to him and other Republican pundits often because my dad is a staunch Republican who makes me listen to Rush Limbaugh's radio show. also I grew up on Fox News so I now watch it out of habit. I am praying that he looses.

Then on Obama: I honestly voted for the president in 2008 because he was the first Black or first half African president candidate. Whichever way you put it, he is my people, and in 2008, his racial identity and him being a democrat was enough for me to chose him over his opponent John McCain.  But my fanaticism with Obama died the day Troy Davis was executed. I had been following Troy Davis' story and truly believed that Obama would pardon him. When he did not, my illusion of an ominpotent president who would always rule in favor of humanity was diffused. It was only then that I realized that Obama is the president of the United states of America and does not do things solely on his own accord. Different things stoke the cord for the people who may have been up in arms for the president in 08 and may now be disenchanted, disparaged, or disillusioned with him. It is okay for everyone to have a issue which has immense personal meaning for them which no one else cares much about or understands.

I care equally if not more deeply about foreign policy as I do domestic. For one, the president does not have executive authority on domestic issues. We have a Congress which has been at a political impasse for the last four years and may likely be so for the next four if Obama wins. The president has done a lot but he could have done more if Republicans were not a stumbling block to his every act. Democracy is the big loser anyways. National legislation also gets reinterpreted and transformed at the local level thus making domestic policy an issue I am very lenient with any president about. For instance, on the economy, the Feds/Ben Bernanke has as much control as Obama does (and private interests still rule). So I give the president a lot of credit. He has usually been left of center on most domestic issues and I appreciate that.

My only yet deepest issue with Obama is with his civil liberties record. Countless reports have documented the expansion of Bush's anti terrorism measures by the Obama administration. The increase in the use of drone strikes by the president have killed many civilians of other countries and as well as Americans. I understand that America's foreign policy is a deeply complicated issue which has a long history which is beyond Obama but I believe that this is an area where a president could exercise great authority. Everything I read increasingly confirms my fear of the increasing militarization of the U.S. and it's allies. I just don't believe in American exceptionalism. I do not say this to be self-righteous but I believe in the fundamental right of every human to life and I believe that what bothers me more than what Obama has done abroad is the fact that we have made it "cool" for him to kill people, non-Americans and Americans alike. I think that this is a point Lupe has made continuously in his critique of Obama.

So I understand and respect people who choose to abstain from this electoral process. I have gone back and forth on whether I should vote. I only recently decided that I will vote because I will not forgive myself if Romney wins, even though I know that my abstention can not greatly sway this election in either direction. I agree that people should wake up but more so to the reality that America is a plutocratic republic, not exactly a democracy. It is quite ironic given that America goes around "spreading democracy in the world". But that is another issue. I'm just with Chris Rock when he said in Head of State that "God Bless America and Everywhere else!" and this perspective makes me more optimistic than my misgivings of this election season.