falling on deaf ears . . .

This is my reason for voting:

"Is there anything important happening in the world today?" my roommate asked as I clicked through the Post's website just now.

"Well, it's Election Day," I said.

He smirked. "Other than that. Besides, it's only the midterm election."

"It's a very important election."

"If you say so," he muttered.

"It's a very important election," I repeated. "We're voting for Congressmen and Senators. If the House and Senate are taken over by the Democrats, Bush could have a very hard time the next two years." He was still unimpressed. "And we're voting for Governor, too."

My roommate simply shook his head. "There's a lot more to it," he said, explaining how "fucked-up" the system was, how the incumbents always win, and how even if someone new is elected, he "usually doesn't do anything different than the last guy."

When he left, I shook my head. There are too many presumably intelligent people who fall back on that defeatist bullshit whenever asked about voting. How can you tell if this system is messed up if you've never taken part in it?

UPDATE: I was surprised to hear my roommate went out and voted this morning. "You can't complain if you don't vote," he said.

My bad. I guess the electorate - or at least, the electorate in my room - deserves more credit than I'm willing to give.