Davis Koh
Davis Koh
Sep 7, 2018 · 3 min read

I will no longer vote for the foreseeable future.

It has been almost 10yrs since I registered. to vote in NY as an eager young adult. A staunch Democrat at the time, I was upset at not having the chance to cast my vote for the Senator from Illinois who would go on to become President. As a naive 18yr old, you could have counted on me to vote the party line. Then, I entered college.

I attended NYU, a heavily liberal institution, and finally got to engage with those who were supposed to be like-minded individuals. Free-thinkers and intellectuals, who weren’t afraid to question everything. Within, a few months I was overwhelmed by the hypocricy I obversed from supporters of the Party. I was told among many other false concepts that your rights, often as a minority, do not matter unless you are of a chosen group selected by the Party. I observed how many preached equality & the rights of the minority, while personally persecuting them. How many protested the influx of wealthy inhabitants, while personally causing the turmoil of locals & hard-working immigrants alike deserving of the right to a good life. What upset me most was that according to current voting requirements, these people, often from neighboring states such as, PA & CT, with no stake in the outcome of elections would make up a large subset of the majority of voters who ultimately decided its outcome. Thus, I gave up what little affiliation I had with the Democrats and vowed to scrutinize each issue from both sides of the aisle, but remained optimistic that one day both Republicans & Democrats alike could begin to use logical reasoning instead of consuming buzz word marching orders from their political sports teams.

Today, I attended the Attorney General Candidates Debate at the hallowed grounds of Cooper Union, where Lincoln, a man who would never have been elected today, gave his famous speech. He would certainly have been disappointed at the spectacle of buzz words and pandering. I realize that after almost 10yrs of engaging in politics that things will not change for the foreseeable future. Legislative Policy as well as its Executive overseers should be more than the athletes competing for buzzwordy CNN or NYT highlight reels that they have become. This is our fault. We care only about outcome with little mind paid to process.

A few years ago, in order to step out of the ivory tower and become an engineer, I had to unlearn all of the bad habits picked up during my 22yrs of education. It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do, but it taught me the principle that process is almost equally important as outcome. It is not enough to look only at policy itself because we will not already know the issues of tomorrow. The only preparation is a strong foundation and sound methodology. I hope that voters will keep this in mind when in the arena of politics, but alas I personally cannot participate in it any longer.

To those not from here, my hometown of NY, looking for politicians that pander to your buzz wordy policies and deciding our fate, I concede. I will not vote for future elections until my vote matters.

    Davis Koh

    Written by

    Davis Koh

    Software Engineer & Angry New Yorker

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