Mr. Smith goes to Washington

Back in 1939, two years before WWII, Frank Capra directed a movie called "Mr. Smith goes to Washington." It starred James Stewart as the country-bumpkin-suddenly-become-junior-senator Jefferson Smith.

He was "ghost-appointed" junior senator by a man named Taylor, the infamous mastermind behind the political machine that runs half of the Senate, including Jeff's idol and fellow state Senator, Mr. Joe Pain.

Mr. Smith knows next to nothing about the political game, which is why he was appointed in the first place: to be a stooge for Taylor and his lackeys. To be an extra vote for whatever they want to be passed.

The first thing Mr. Smith does when he eventually gets to Washington is take tour. He's so much in awe of the history and the great men surrounding him that he can barely remember his own name. But he soon learns of a bill being presented to the senate which contains a graft (an illegal profit). In the face of this political corruption, one would think a man so obviously out of his league would just keep his mouth shut and go along with it, because after all, what does he know?

He doesn't. He gets up in front of the entire Senate and tries to expose the Taylor Machine for what it is. But Senator Pain, in a panic that his political career will be destroyed if his part in the bill comes out, instead paints Jeff as a criminal, and nearly forces him out of the Senate. But at the last moment, Jeff takes advantage of a rule allowing him to stay on the floor as long as he stays on his feet and keeps talking without stopping for a moment other than to take questions.

He does this for almost 24 hours straight, because he believes that the people from his state will support him and bring forth evidence against the Taylor Machine. In the end they do, but it is Jeff's amazing struggle against the powers that be in the American government that makes the movie completely amazing. His willingness to stand up even when everyone else is telling him to sit down because he can never win. They're telling him the battle is lost. But as he says several times in the movie: "The only causes worth fighting for are the ones that are lost." If you haven't seen this movie before, PLEASE go watch it right now. It is one of the best movies ever.

And it is extremely fitting for the election being held tomorrow. Mitt Romney is far from a country bumpkin, but Obama could have been cast as Taylor in a remake of the movie.

And in the face of this seemingly insuperable obstacle that is the Obama Machine, one wonders (especially as a first-time-voter like myself) if your vote will count for anything. You wonder if it will make any difference in the long run. Sure, you're going to vote anyway, but at the same time you're filled with a despair and a horrible knowledge that in spite of your vote, Obama will win anyway.

But that's not the way it works. Firstly, God will know which way you voted, and that will be recorded for eternity.

Secondly, your vote matters because you voted. At first this may seem kind of stupidly self-evident, but what I mean is that it's the fact that you voted that counts. It's the fact that you cared enough to vote. It's the fact that you are fighting. It's the fact that you are trying your best, and that's the best you can do.

And it's the fact that America is millions of "you's" who will get up in the morning and vote for the right person, no matter how many people in the media, or their parish, or their family are telling them to sit back down, to shut up, and to just go along with it because we are country bumpkins and we couldn't possibly understand.

But they're wrong. And we will stand up and have our say, even if we have to keep standing and talking for another four years. Because everyone has labeled our cause as lost. And there are no causes more worth fighting for than those that are lost.

~Grace