I can remember a time, not even all that long ago, when I didn’t care all that much about voting. I would usually only vote in the presidential elections and never, ever, ever for a democrat or republican. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t agree with their views, I didn’t even really know what their views were, it was more this subconscious feeling that there was something wrong with only having two realistic options in every election. Even more prominent was this feeling that no matter who was put in the White House my life really didn’t change at all. I didn’t feel effected in the slightest by the people running the country. This seemed to also manifest this feeling that these people were making empty promises since they always would talk about how things will be better when they’re put in office yet it never seemed to make anything better.. or worse.

What finally convinced me that it really does matter, that I’m effected, by who is put in charge of things was George W Bush’s presidency. Good ol’ GW managed to be so absurdly bad at running a country that there are now constant reminders to show how much a president can really do. It wasn’t some angelic savior of the people that made it obvious that the president determines the quality of life for Americans, it was a stubborn alcoholic who can’t even repeat a proverb correctly (anyone remember the “fool me once..” screw-up?). From our deteriorating dollar and all its economic implications, to the Iraq War, to soaring gas prices, to the attempts to strip Americans of constitutional rights, Bush has done a thorough job of showing how much power a president really has.

I won’t get into the details about all the ways he has screwed up, unless you somehow missed these things and would like me to, but I will draw some conclusions from this revelation. If one man can run a government into the ground so thoroughly, can one man or woman also turn our lives into cushy bastions of pleasure? Now that may be a stretch, but not all that much of a stretch. It’s not so much that every little thing will be taken care of and we’ll never have any worries, just that the opportunities to put ourselves into a position where we have no worries can be created. Do you know how much college costs now compared to 8 years ago? Do you know how much gas cost 8 years ago? Do you know how easy it was to find affordable housing 8 years ago? These are pretty concrete changes that effect everyone who doesn’t want to live with their mom for the rest of their lives. If we could fall off the wagon to this degree then I don’t see why we couldn’t hop back on that wagon with the right management and get it moving even faster.

I think there’s also this growing since of responsibility for one’s world that comes from getting older. As a child and a teenager you’re, usually, very sheltered from the realities of the world. Once that shelter disappears you start to realize, or at least I did, that the things that you seemed to be able to take for granted didn’t come without a cost. Some of this I realized when I lived in New York. I remember when it would get hard, and I’d be trying to stretch each penny, and my biggest concern was the idea of having to move back to south Jersey and take a hit to my pride when I needed to rely on a parental figure yet again. It made me think, what if I didn’t have those figures in my life? Parents aren’t there forever. There’s always that chance that you won’t have someone to pick you up in life when you’ve royally screwed yourself over. All those solutions that I could have followed up on when I lived in New York would have been necessary if I didn’t have some enormous safety net to fall back on.

The point I’m getting to is that, while it may seem like it on the surface, life is not something that should be taken for granted. Anything can happen and the world that seemed so safe and secure as a kid was really illusory. If you want to maintain that illusion you have to be proactive. When this stops seeming true, just remind yourself of what a guy like Bush can do to your life.