Vote TEEJ

This originally appeared in The Argonaut on Jan. 29, 2008. 


All the election news has me excited. Since I was 12, I’ve done my best to pay attention to politics and presidential elections in particular. If my sixth grade class had been able to vote, Ross Perot would have been president.
That is why 12-year-olds don’t get to vote.

A couple years later, I calculated how long it would be until I could run for president myself. I’ve never held an elected office outside of high school clubs and my one campaign for student council was a lot like this year’s Miami Dolphins. My one win came via the votes of friends. I didn’t have enough of them.
Parents in this country are fond of telling their kids they can be anything they want, even president. I’m throwing my hat into the ring right now.
Tranchell ’16.

I figure if I start now, I might have enough money to run in one state and drop out after garnering less than one percent of the vote.
Just like high school.
If I’m lucky, I’ll hang on for a few more states and then drop out like Dennis Kucinich.That’s my last Kucinich joke, I promise. He’s back in Ohio with his smoking hot wife and I’m here in Moscow, waiting to see a UFO of my own.

OK, that’s the last Kucinich joke. Enough about him, more about me.2016 is only eight years away. That means whomever is elected this time around will be an outgoing incumbent. I won’t have to face either a popular two-term president or someone who spent eight years solidifying his/her reputation as a waste of space.
On the other hand, if the next president turns out to be a one-term-and-out punk, I may have to face 2012’s election winner.

This gets more complicated all the time.I can’t let my potential competition prevent me from entering the race. I can’t let not having any money, supporters or experience prevent me from putting myself on the line for my country.Age, on the other hand, has kept me from running. Why wait until 2016, you may have asked yourself? I will turn 37 a week before the general election.
All those hindrances — money, support, experience — are why they don’t let 25-year-olds run for president. Or in my case, 28-year-olds. For now, and for the next election cycle as well, I’m left with just voting for president.

That’s still a big deal to me as it should be to everyone. There’s a naïve pre-teen boy inside me that wants to vote even if it’s for the wrong person. It’s someone who refused to vote for the establishment but for some weird reason thought voting for someone shorter than him was a good idea.
Election results have a way of jading people. One way to get over that is to attempt to make a change at the highest level. Sure, my presidential run will be mocked, scorned, rebuffed, and — most likely — ignored, but I have to try. It isn’t political suicide if one has no political life to kill.Or, I can just vote and encourage others to do the same. (Yes, I once said most journalists don’t vote, but that’s because I read it in two places I thought were reliable but nothing beats hearing directly from other people. Note to presidential hopeful self: Don’t trust polls.)
Part of me wants to participate in primary and/or caucus voting but that requires party affiliation and that I won’t do.

I’m registered in Nevada anyway, so technically I missed my chance.
Don’t you do the same. Pay attention to the debates and speeches. Decide for yourself who you want to be the leader of this country for the next 4-8 years.

And remember to vote T.J. in 2016.