Citizens of the United States have a variety of thoughts and feelings regarding the midterm elections that just took place, but an exit poll question was shared on several news networks last week that no one seems to want to keep talking about.

Over SEVENTY PERCENT of voters said that their preference is to have NEITHER Biden or Trump as candidates in the 2024 election. That percentage implies a substantial development from both major groups – of course parties can be dissatisfied with certain candidates, but this matchup in 2020 was one of the most polarizing of our time. We have a very clear majority that want to move on from this madness, and yet the media (along with those in charge) continue to shove this narrative down our throats. These men are too old, too controversial, and (I’m a broken record here) should be at home with families instead of injecting more chaos into our government.

I actively studied politics in high school, and seriously considered majoring in Poly Sci when I was deciding where to go for college. While I would never dream of subjecting my family and friends to the extreme impact of running a campaign for a higher office in this day and age, I continue to be fascinated by the lack of educating oneself that remains the usual voter’s approach to preparing for each election cycle. Endless attacks on one’s personal character/political history because of a random Tweet or commercial you saw one day does not entitle you to a superior opinion, but rather puts you in the majority of those who do less than the bare minimum to learn about candidates before formally casting a ballot.

Let’s visit the notion of the “wave” that normally favors the party not holding the Oval Office very four years. For decades, the Republicans and Democrats have assumed that by attacking the other’s President early on in their term – it is only natural that the nation will follow their lead and empower them in the other government branches to seek a true balance of power. However, 2022 is showing a buck in that trend because of two primary factors: first, the candidates selected from both sides were not exactly what the public wanted to replace incumbents (cue celebrity TV doctors, and others who seem to think democracy is something to be taken from someone else) – and secondly, the MOST influential factor, is that the nation does NOT like the idea of a candidate needing to be “backed” by Trump as a means for getting elected into office over someone else.

We can go back and forth on this all day, as most of you know that I voted third-party in 2020 since my conscience would not allow me to cast a vote for either of these senile men to hold one of the most important positions in the world (and furthermore, I did the same thing in 2022 when it came to replacing our soon-to-be-vacant Senator spot in NC based on the options we were presented with). You can do your best to tell me my vote is “wasted” in this system, but the independents taking office (or forcing run-offs due to percentages not being reached) are implying quite the opposite. If more of you were willing to act on how you feel, the candidates being vetted and polled would be of higher quality and a better reflection of the platform you claim to represent… or you may finally see the light and put some effort into creating a healthier alternative.

Our nation may indeed be approaching its 250th birthday, but when it comes to the discussions had on nearly every platform – you would think that the US is struggling with puberty in its teenage years with acne popping up every other day no matter what kind of facial scrub we use. I hope that the surprising outcomes (I’m defining “surprising” by noting how many races went against polling data) challenge everyone to not merely call the election process into question – the fact that it takes us weeks to count votes amid lawsuits from both sides is just downright depressing – but to take time from scrolling through Reels and TikToks to dig more into what makes someone an ideal candidate to you personally. You might be surprised as to what you find, and I’ll be over here with a cigar to talk about it all when you do.