Our next national election of unprecedented significance is one week away. Non-presidential midterm elections sometimes lack inspiration for voters, and turnout tends to be down compared to presidential election years.

Which is unfortunate because midterm elections matter. The outcome of every election has consequences, from the most local of local elections to to the highest seats in our federal government. If nothing else, it matters that voters realize the consequences of our elections. So go vote, and know that your vote matters if only because you choose to exercise the right to vote.

And when you do go vote (next Tuesday!) remember these lessons about political elections in the United States, from some of our strangest political movies

From Bulworth: Money is the Problem, Voting is the Solution

Senator Bulworth is out of favor. A Democrat of the 70s, he’s now become an entrenched career politician. Hiding affairs from the public (but not his wife) and loathing the world of politics, he takes out an insurance policy for his daughter and hires an assassin to kill him. During his re-election campaign.

Which means, the hyper-public-approval-rating based political facade is dropped. He shows up to campaign events drunk. He allows cameras to follow him to nightclubs. He gets high on camera and acts like an all-around jackass. And, for all his sabotage, his campaign is revived. Because for once a politician says what everyone already knows.

But even knowing this, Bulworth can’t quit. Which is what he learns. Politics is nasty. Politics is entrenched to money. As Bulworth says (or raps): “people have their problems, the haves and the have nots, but the ones that make me listen pay for 30 second spots.” This whole system is bullshit. But bullshit left to its own accord?

And so the Lesson of Bulworth is this: Even though we know this political show is ridiculous, we also know that our votes are the way to fix it. Which is why Bulworth, in the end, tries to turn things around based on the support he has found in his unwieldy campaign. The problems in politics won’t be solved by bailing out on politics.

From The Adjustment Bureau: Your Vote is YOUR Vote, it isn’t Pre-Ordained.

A man (Matt Damon) runs for senate. He meets a woman (Emily Blunt) in the process, they share a moment of meaning, and are parted by the campaign, which he loses. He tries again, and is reunited with the woman, they fall in love, and this love alters the “plans” that are written into “the book” for his (and America’s) political future. When the plans go off the rails, the Adjustment Bureau steps in, the henchmen of the Chairman who ensure that the progress of human activity follows the destiny put down for the future.

The Adjustment Bureau tells the man this: stay with the woman and you will not become President. If you do not become president, the world order may fall into chaos, tyranny, fascism, and all the those things men in suits from the 1960s fear most. Follow the plans in the book, and the future is power and the protection of the world. Just leave the woman you just met.

But nothing conquers true love, right? This is America. We make our own decisions.

The lesson is this: We are creatures of free-will, and we exercise that will in our lives all the time. This includes at the ballot box. You do not have to vote your party or your parents’ party, or the party the Powerful Person is telling you to support. There is no bureau of immortal Mad Men re-adjusting human activity to meet the pre-ordained plans of some God or gods, or even the 1%.

Wield your vote freely; it is yours alone.

From Election: Someone Has to Win.

Electoral politics can be a nasty affair at any level. Tracy Flick, the overachieving high-school Junior running for Student Body President in Election, knows this better than anyone. Tracy wants to be Class President really, really, really, (really) bad. Her chief opponents, Paul and Tracy Metzler? Well, they could take it or leave it.

For teacher Jim McCallister, though, this is a personal matter. Tracy had an affair with Jim’s best-friend and colleague that resulted in his firing. Now, Jim wants to exact revenge by making sure Tracy loses her campaign. In order to win, Tracy will go as far as destroying signs and interfering in her opponents personal life. To ensure she loses, Jim will rig the ballot box. It’s a sad fucking mess, really, for a high-school election, that reminds us all that when “you’re cheating others, you’re only cheating yourself.”

Which is not the lesson Election actually wants us to learn. The lesson is this: In any contest, someone is going to win. What is worth to you to ensure it is your candidate? Win or lose, what happens after you’ve done your part in this nightmare? This?

From Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: Politics, at the end of the day, is BOOORRRRING!

Do you even remember that the plot of Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace is about a political election? Do you remember that the entire plot of the Star Wars Cinematic Universe (for now) is built upon the outcome of an election that took up at least half of a movie and you can’t even remember that it happened?

In that light, I’d posit that The Phantom Menace is one of the most accurate political and electoral movies ever made: because the nitty gritty world of politics, and yes, even elections, is boring and forgettable. When Princess Amidala appears before the Galactic Senate to issue her vote of no confidence in Supreme Chancellor Valorum (even typing this is putting me to sleep), we get a glimpse of what real life in D.C. is all about:

That vote of no confidence puts the wheels in motion for a new election, and the winner of that election will be Senator Palpatine, who you probably recall from the original movies is actually Emporer Palpatine, leader of the Evil Empire and bringer about of much death and chaos. You remember this because the original Star Wars trilogy is not about elections but about overthrowing a government.

Overthrowing a government is exciting. Bureaucracy is not. George Lucas, it seems, knows this very, very, very (very) well.

The lesson of the entire Star Wars Prequel Trilogy is this: Politics is a boring world, full of council meetings, speeches and formal wear, and that is very true. But when boredom means you stop paying attention, you end up with this guy:

So pay attention, and VOTE!

Don’t get bored and let the Empire Win!

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