they died so that we didn't have to care

Yes, I voted today.

But what's more interesting (to me at least), is that these decisions are still so racially influenced. With the generations past, this is completely understandable and justified. I have no qualms about the fact that most older white people vote DA and most older black people (and I use black in the BC way) vote for the ANC, Cope and the scatterings of other groups. What was surprising is that after stumbling into a politically tinged conversation with some white semi-friends, I realised that most were voting for the DA. I only found this out when I shouted "who the fuck would vote for them?" and was met with an awkward silence.

Surely not. Surely they could see the campaign posters that bear "STOP ZUMA" across their faces like acne are lazy, intellectually stunted and a certain way to alienate a large majority of undecided voters? did they never hear Tony Leon speak? Did the frankly racist "Fight Back" campaign in the 1999 election not speak of the kind of party they were?

This post was not designed as an attack, though. All I'm examining is that despite the number of flaws in the party (and the same could be said for any other), young voters seem to still be governed by the invisible hand that is our past. The young people, rebelling against staid parents are also just accelerating the quiet racialisation of our post-apartheid state. On the surface, things have changed. But there are people who listen to the same music as me and dress in the same (not exactly the same) clothes who are bound to political views like cripples to crutches.

 

The only reason I voted for Cope was that I see it as the first attempt at a party that is formed after the maelstrom of apartheid politics. The rhetoric has never been like the ANC's triumphant "single handed" victory over oppression, nor has it relied on reactionary policitics (though it's formation was) of the DA. Perhaps by 2014 there will be a stronger sense of Cope as a party independent of Mbeki's former allies, but only through ensuring their survival now can I hope for such a future.