Election Day: American, all too American

I know voting is important. Really, I do.

I also know there’s a societal sickness in the United States of America, and I know the idealism that inspires Americans to flaunt an“I Voted!” sticker is part of this sickness.

Americans are taught to believe, not to think. We are taught to believe that we are somehow exceptional. We are taught to believe in freedom in a country that has the highest incarceration world in the world. We are taught to believe we live in the most exceptional democracy in a country where two of the last three presidents won popular votes and lost the election. We are taught to have faith in a system of voter suppression and gerrymandering; we are taught to believe in a system that allows citizens to vote on a single workday (and during work hours), effectively preventing the citizens who most need their voices heard from having any say at the ballot box.

Yes, we are taught to believe in American democracy as if the term were an end in itself. We are taught to believe that slapping an “I Voted” sticker over our hearts will work like a Band-Aid.

But some wounds are too big to be covered up with a sticker.

Blue, green, or red, the color doesn’t matter.

Blue, green, or red, the wound still festers.

And so in honor of election day, by all means believe. That’s what we are, after all, believers — to believe in democracy is to be an American. But after the votes are in and as we continue to hope for change for the better, let’s not kid ourselves into thinking a shiny-sticker can cover up our sickness . Instead, let’s start diagnosing the sickness instead of covering it up with a Band-Aid. Because this, too, is what we are taught to believe, and it is distinctly American, all too American.