Why I didn't vote today.

As I am sure that you all know, today was election day. This however, was unknown to me until I got a company wide email excusing us to leave early or take long lunches in order to go vote. It wasn't that I forgot, I just was never paying attention. Oops.

You see, I am making a confession here, I am not a political person...at all. So much so that I only vaguely know the difference between Democrats and Republicans and good luck asking me to name anyone of said persuasion.

So it is the same every year. The voting day approaches and it is like the Spanish inquisition as soon as you walk in the door. "Did you vote yet?" "When are you going to vote?" No one dares to ask WHO you vote for, because that would be "too personal". But they can give you the 3rd degree about IF you are voting. And when I say "no", my answer is met with open mouths and aghast faces as if I had just confessed to something as absurd as not liking ice cream or kittens. "How can you NOT vote?" they exclaim with wide eyes that make me feel like a dirty freedom hating traitor.

I don't really have a good reason for never voting. I remember kids that were so excited for their 18th birthdays so they could reister to vote. And here I am 27 and never voted in my life. 9 good voting years that I have squandered away.

As a good American who respects the freedom of opinion and choice, I should be honored to take a stance and do my Americanly duty to vote because I CAN. Especially after all of the fighting my fore fathers and mothers went through in order to win me this freedom to vote. I don't want to disrespect that.

I WANT to get involved. But the moment I open my mind to the political debates and debauchery and TRY to care, all I become is angered and disgusted by the mudslinging and trash talking that goes on. These people don't care about the issues at hand. They just care about the WIN. It is like a high school popularity contest all over again. How is candidate one telling me that candidate two is full of lies going to convince me to vote for candidate one? It is not, and thus - no voting. It is in some ways, the same reason I don't watch the news. But that is a post for another day.

It is not that I don't care or don't have opinions. It is just that my opinions and those of politicians generally don't coincide. I am a rather openminded individual. I am pro choice, pro gay marriage, and pro vegetarian. haha. I maintain that as long as you are not hurting yourself, others, animals or the planet, you are probably alright. Who am I to say what you do with your body, in your bed or with your food. We have plenty of so called "normal" stereotyped people out there in the world causing trouble and harm and yet we are worried about whom is sleeping with whom. I just have no patience for it. Sadly most snooty politicians don't agree with such open-mindedness so it is hard to side with them and hand over my vote.

It just doesn't seem right or fair for me to vote when I don't have a stance on the issues at hand, or don't agree with any of the ideals of the candidates running. I feel that by blindly voting for the sake of voting isn't helpful and just skews the results. Picking someone because their name sounds better than the other guys doesn't seem very fair.

I also don't believe in the "lesser of two evils" approach. So if all of the candidates suck, I am supposed to pick the least sucky guy and hop for the best? WTF?

I feel that politics, like religion, comes from family influence, and my family was never very religious, nor were they very politically active. They voted when it concerned school things or raising taxes, but we didn't really discuss politics at home. We didn't have family feuds over conflicting political views at holidays parties that lead to year long grudges. I was involved in a few political campaign team things for History class in school, but that was about the extent of my involvement.

That is not to say that to say that my life is totally devoid of political influence. My best friend is a principal at a local school and my step mom is a teacher. As you can imagine, they care greatly about the laws and propositions going up for vote, as they do see the direct effects on such things on their schools, budgets and fellow teachers. So I try to pay more attention and care for the sake of others.

I suppose that I would have a more opinionated stance on the issues at hand if I felt that I was directly affected by them. Don't get me wrong, I KNOW that what happens in the voting booths ultimately has an effect on our government, schools, taxes, and what have you. But as a young person that doesn't own a house, doesn't have kids, and is never going to see Social Security it doesn't seem like much changes in my world post-election day.

I know this "young and naive" demeanor is not one that I can maintain very much longer as I'm rounding the corner to 30. But it is difficult to cut through the shit coming out of the mouths of politicians and filter out what would be best course of action. To vote is to make a decision that could ultimately better, or totally fuck up some peoples lives. I am not comfortable being responsible for that. As I am sure you can imagine, I am not alone in these and similar views on the politics. It is a dangerous game we play.