Is this my selection?

This question is asked when a person has to choose between two or more. This means that in many cases in our lives, we cannot do the work we like or that is in our interest. Therefore, we elect a person who will do on our behalf the action that we wanted to do. We have named this process either an election, and the person who is selected or elected makes decisions on our behalf. The chosen person could be a lawmaker, a law that could either benefit or harm us. Therefore, it is very important that we are aware of who we elect to represent us.

Sometimes a range of choices has already been made for us, and we are forced to choose one from that range. For example, I need a shirt. I go to the store and see different racks of shirts arranged on different shelves depending on the type of the fabric, model, size, and color. Short sleeve and long sleeve shirts are separated into two different sections. In each section, and under each model, different sizes of the same model and material are presented for each size. It seems interesting that I can choose what I want from such a long range. But because my choice is limited to what I see in that store, even if this range is much wider, it should be said that this is not a selection or a complete selection of all choices. This means that although one of the hundreds of options has been selected, if I ask a tailor to make me a shirt in the color and style of my choice, which is different from that huge range, that shirt will be closer to my choice or selection than what I find in that store. This means that we never, or perhaps it is more accurate to say that most of the time, we choose from what is pre-selected for us.

In the example given, the choice is very wide, because the seller decides to make the options as wide as possible to find more customers. However, in political elections our choices are more narrowed down. This means that a limited number of candidates are introduced, and we must choose a person from this narrow range of options. In political processes, the reason we choose others to make decisions for us is that no one can participate in all political issues. In this case, two points should be considered to accept a substitute. First, how and under what conditions or process, and by whom, the person who was named as a candidate was selected? And more importantly, does the person who has become our candidate fully consider our opinions, and is the person able to fulfill our demands?

In every country, there is a body that evaluates people for elected positions. Then, depending on the type of government and political power, that body evaluates the candidates, and if that person's conditions are compatible with the way of that government, that body gives a positive vote to that candidate. In the countries that we call dictatorships or autonomies, there is neither a political institution nor elections. Therefore, our discussion here is limited to political institutions, and to countries whose political currents are called democracies. This includes all western countries, even the ones led by a monarch. In western countries, there are parties in which people participate. The greater the number of participants in these parties, the more likely candidates of those parties are elected in political campaigns, because generally people vote for the parties they believe in. Of course, and unfortunately, many people consider themselves affiliated with a party and vote for its candidates without researching the party's manifesto. Even for the people nominated by that party, they vote for those people and trust in that party, without researching each and every one of those candidates.

According to numerous sources, none of the first two presidential candidates were popular in the upcoming elections in the United States, which will be held on November 5 this year. The Democratic Party decided to change its candidate, who was the current president and to nominate the vice president in his place. Of course, the problem of this candidate is her gender and race, which reduces the probability of her winning. But we know that one of these two candidates must be chosen. As a side joke, it is possible that the recent shooting of Trump will certainly increase his number of votes! But the question is that among more than four hundred and twenty political parties that exist in America, why are the candidates of the two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, always chosen for every election, be it the presidency or the House of Representatives, etc.? Of course, it should be noted that American government has a system called the electoral system, or the two-party system. In such a system, the two mentioned parties choose their candidates. Four years ago, that is in the year 2020, 66% of people eligible to vote participated in the presidential election. This was the largest percentage that had voted since 1990. The number of voters for the presidency in the United States in the year 1952, and the years 1960 to 1968, and in the last election, as mentioned, was above 60%, and in the rest of the years, it was below this percentage. This means that slightly more than half of the people eligible to vote participate in the US presidential election. Now it should be seen why nearly half of the people eligible to vote in this country have no interest in voting for the most important political post of the country. It should be added that in America, advertisements in general, especially political advertisements for the presidency, are very extensive and expensive, and that is the deciding factor.

As it was mentioned earlier, there are dozens and hundreds of official political parties in America. But in the presidential elections and for many other political positions, they are chosen only from the two mentioned parties. The question remains as to why most of the voters are in these two parties or vote for the candidates of the mentioned two parties. The most important election in America is for the presidency and the number of participants in this election is clearly larger than participants in other elections. Presidential elections are repeated every four years, and the last election was in 2020, and this year we will see a new presidential election process. In 2020, the number of people of voting age was less than 258 million, and those eligible to vote were more than 239 million. Of these, nearly 160 million people voted, that is, 62% of the total and 67% of eligible people who participated in the voting process. A closer look at these figures shows that more than 18 million people who were eligible in terms of age were not allowed to participate in these elections, either because of their criminal record, or other similar reasons. Thus, millions of people who were age eligible were not given the right to select their president. There is no doubt that they could not be qualified to be elected as candidates either.

Now let's return to the voters. In every country, there is a special system that approves or rejects the conditions of persons, and their qualifications to be candidates. For example, in Iran, some illiterate mullahs check the qualifications of those who run for election. Probably, their first condition for approving a candidate is that person's belief in Islam. Then, how that person pretends to be religious is the next condition. There is no such approval system in America, although candidates are scrutinized by a different system. It is important to note that all western countries, especially the United States, are very strong in terms of mass communication and marketing, and advertising is in the hands of big capitalists and large companies. In effect, presidential candidates are chosen by those multi-national conglomerates. Companies are generally supporters of the policies of Democrats or Republicans, as the candidates for these two parties essentially maintain those companies’ benefits. As a result, these two parties consider the interests of these capitalists, and not the general public. If the president is supported by arm manufacturing companies, wars will escalate, as millions of dollars of arms are shipped to Israel to kill Palestinians, in a daily basis. For example, during Trump's presidency, although he had many reactionary and inhumane policies, wars were reduced during his administration since his companies produce peacetime goods. Of course, it should be kept in mind that the success of Western countries is when the war efforts are maintained continuously in some parts of the globe. War and conquering a weaker country are the pillars of the growth of countries that are equipped with a capitalist system, and its examples continue since the beginning of the 20th century when the capitalist system grew in the West.

We have already spoken about the presidential elections in America and various options in electing one. Then we discussed briefly the war and its perpetrators. The elections are basically done for us, and we have to choose between those that are already selected by others, since they can implement their desired policies. Therefore, we only select from among the chosen ones! But our discussion here is about choice in general. When we choose something or someone, do we get what we want, or are we forced to choose between two or more predetermined options? Generally, each choice is a relative choice. For example, to draw a painting, we choose a color from among hundreds of other colors, considering that there are other colors that are not available to us. Therefore, whenever we have a selection in front of us, we must always remember that generally what we choose or select is limited to the options that have been given to us, and sometimes we must fight to choose the exact one we desire to have.