Who is your President? The question was posed to the class in such blunt fashion that Abel hardly knew how to respond. The election was only a few weeks off and when the world fell to pieces, only rhetoric, stances, and hurt feelings remained. The class was divided and that division had spread through like infection from the student body to the teachers and from them to co-workers and family alike. Abel sat tapping his pencil to distract from the intense debate between the staunchly Republican girl and the Liberal male student who had slept through most of the course up until this point. The Republican girl had the obligatory bone straight hair and asexual cardigan which stirred only the ire of the fashionable and no feelings of sexual interest. “But the economy has floundered under his presidency” the Republican girl responded, the classes eyes darted back and forth from right to left watching the tennis match between the Liberal and the Conservative. Her opponent was a young man who Abel had observed more than once sleeping with his eyes open while the professor lectured. He had also seen this same young man sexually harass his share of the female student body, but here he was on a soap box defending the righteous with his rubber wristbands and t-shirts stuffed with slogans. Abel thought this boy was an idiot. “You have to at least look at his stance on healthcare. He’s trying to help those of us who aren’t all privileged like you. We don’t have daddy’s money to pay our way”, the left winger shouted and his supporters nearly squealed with joy at those words.
Abel sat in the middle merely watching and tapping his pencil as he kept the rhythm of this debate.Pointless he thought to himself, how very pointless. Abel watched the two trade barbs about the sanctity of marriage and the welfare state. It was utterly unmoving. He wondered why people even take the time to have such arguments. Would it not make sense to actually try and convince your opponent of your point rather than pander to those who already support your belief. Abel wasn’t sure about voting or political parties. Those weren’t his areas of expertise; but knowing people was another kettle of fish indeed. He knew that people could be sweet to each other as long as they weren’t too inconvenienced. He watched the kind of things people did every day, from the young man on the bus who gives up his seat to the older woman or the other young man who would hold that woman at knife point. What was the difference between the Samaritan and the thief, he wondered. The left and right continued bickering and Abel sat in the middle thinking over his question. The professor noticed Abel’s glazed over look and could see the busy tick of his mind at work.
“Abel.” The professor interrupted the debate, and both parties halted mid-sentence at the sudden boom of the professor’s voice. “What are your feelings on our candidates?”, the professor asked with a sly smirk. The professor searched Abel’s face for some sign of his investment, but he was met with the same wise and quizzical look. “Are you voting Democrat or Republican this November?”, the professor asked Abel, whose eyes all but spit at the professor for this unwanted attention. The class Liberals and
Conservatives all stared and waited for the answer of this undecided entity. Abel stared off for a moment letting his mind wander with the flickering light of the fluorescent bulbs in the room and he considered ever so carefully before answering.
“I don’t know if I am voting this year” Abel said with little care in his voice. The professor’s grin became big and stupid, like a toothless gawker staring at a right perty lady who dun smell good. At least that’s what Abel thought. The Republican girl gasped and the Liberal lefty scoffed. The professor, after having silently patted himself on the back, was excited for having stirred up a shit storm and asked, “Can you tell us why?” Abel, suddenly alert, looked at his warring classmates and then back to his professor and muttered under his breath “Why? Because of this – because rather than talk about how to improve the human condition, representatives from both sides choose to trade barbs and think of creative ways to lie with a smile. I don’t think I’ll vote, not because it won’t have an impact on who wins, but because I can tell that neither side gives a shit.” The class stood in awe of Abel and, save for a few stifled snickers, it was uncomfortably quiet.
His breathing was heavy as the passion of his speech was still coursing through him, and pulsing like warm waves of satisfying rage that were much sweeter when expressed. Abel gulped and composed himself before he spoke again, “If I don’t believe that the person we put into office will take my future into account – this person, who we give the power to say whether or not we are all equals, on equal footing, or burdens to the wealthy; if I don’t believe this person will fight for me, then why shouldn’t I just do something that I feel is worth my time – like go to a movie or watch porn? I just don’t want to be a party to a pissing match between a white collar stiff and another white collar stiff who say they’re my buddy, but slip mercury into my food or take my school funding away, or send my friends to war with no purpose besides profit. I don’t believe in the men we have running because I have no reason to.”
The professor smiled, but his eyes had grown dark as though Abel’s cynicism was making him physically ill. Abel looked at the professor and the professor sighed heavily before presenting a rallying cry of clichés, dropping buzzwords like hope and future and the power of the people. You almost had me thinking you had something important to say, Abel thought his professor was thinking, before packing up his things. Abel walked out of class without a word and the professor’s calls to him fell on deaf ears. If there is a reason to care about something I’ll find it myself and you can put that on a god damn bumper sticker. He continued thinking about the Samaritan and the thief and what made them different. It was several hours and a few shots of tequilla later that he found the answer. There is no difference is there? They both want something whether its praise or pocket change, but they both want something. Abel wasn’t sure if one was better than the other, but he would find a reason for himself beyond the preset battle lines of Democrats and Republicans, but it would have to wait for the morning since the bottle wasn’t empty quite yet.