It’s that time of the year again, where almost all of us go to the polls to cast our votes. This time it’s the midterm election. Many members of the both houses of Congress– the Senate and the House of Representatives– are going to the chopping block, waiting to see how the general public will decide their fate of whether they are going be employed or not. Not to forget, governors and other state officials are in heated races as well.

As usual, every candidate is striving to get your attention and then, of course, your vote. In return they, the politicians, promise they will represent our issues and us in a respective manner. However, the question worth asking is do you have pressing concerns that you want addressed?

Although how you vote depends on how you answer that question and other questions, the outcome of the election also depends on which side of the aisle you look at the issues from and how you view many other factors that will mostly likely determine the outcome of the election– unemployment, healthcare (lack of it and actually making it possible for many Americans), deficits and foreign policy (The Dual-Track Approach), to mention just a few. Anonymous wealthy ad sponsors, Tea Party and two political parties are all jamming to the arena, wanting to score final punches and evoke American attention to take home the heavy weight title.

Americans are hurting. The American dream is on the verge of withering away. Who is to be blamed for this? Who will strike an alternative force looking from the socio-political prospective? Well, when it comes to who’s to blame, there’s no one other than the party in power. This does not necessarily mean they are the cause of the situation; rather, it is more of what the general public’s perception of them is. Who is to benefit from this? The benefit is held to the party that is not in power.

Some political analysts are already predicting that this midterm election is anti-incumbent. Only American voters have the answer. Success for Democrats will be determined by if they can repeat the same voter turnout as the last elections. For the Grand Old Party (GOP), success will be determined by if the Tea Party that generated enormous attention and publicity will translate their actions into sparked voter turnout on Election Day that will surpass Democratic voters.

Voting is a vital ingredient for democracy, and it is a constitutional given right. It is our civic duty that if performed by clear-headed and well-informed citizens could alter history by inserting changes. To us, Somali-Americans, we must vote. This is one of the rare occasions where two clichés become true. One person can make changes and our strengths are in numbers. One vote can bring changes, and equally true is that our numbers will matter and make us visible, and empower us with ability to insert changes we long to see both in domestic and foreign policy.

Omar Hashi
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