If you don't want to vote this year, it's okay to say it. In fact, declare it with an infectious zeal, a proud look on your face, and perhaps a slight hint of sarcasm. Voting is a right, not a duty, you can tell your friends.
Sure, the "Voting Police" will probably knock down your door, tie your hands behind your back, and drag you against your will down to the voting booths – all the while chanting, "Choose or Lose! Choose or Lose!"
Others will throw their arms in the air, turn bright red, and begin speaking in a hyperventilating tongue. Voting is power, they will say. As a young person, it's your "civic duty" to vote. Voter abstinence is akin to murder. If you don't vote, you're more anti-American than our country's greatest adversaries, and you might as well pack up your bags and take your morally bankrupt values to another country.
In one discussion I had with a Voting Policeman, he vehemently suggested that Americans should have to "earn" their way into society by voting, engaging in the political process, and doing one's "civic duty."
"And what if they don't want to vote?" I asked him.
"Then they shouldn't be allowed the same rights as other Americans."
My jaw dropped. This was worse than I thought.
The Voting Police, while claiming to espouse pluralistic and multicultural values, cannot hear you. Locked up in a world of insular perspective, their so-called "compassionate" approach inadvertently bashes the first amendment, stripping you of your right to shut your trap if you so choose.
I must warn you, non-voter: Their case, and the enthusiasm with which they argue it, is compelling. There's terrorism, education, the war on drugs, social inequality, the environment, gay rights, abortion, health care, and social security. Indeed, if you don't vote, your life may end tomorrow.
But wait one second. If you vote Republican, you're putting a unilateral America in harm's way, marginalizing gay Americans, and destroying the social security safety net.
And if you vote Democrat, you'll most likely destroy the free trade system, add on several hundred million dollars in taxpayer money for pork barrel projects, and lose the war on terror. Wait. Which party did I just describe? I'm confused.
With party lines blurrier than a night of binge drinking on fraternity row, it's hard to know who you're voting for these days. But you must choose one, say the Voting Police. It doesn't matter who you pick – as long as you go to that ballot box on Election Day. Don't like either candidate? Choose the "lesser of two evils."
But what if none of the candidates' proposals appeals to your political sensibility? What if you've thought through the issues and concluded that neither party has a viable answer?
Sorry. In Section 36.b of the Voting Police Handbook, your vote is indeed compulsory.
Should the Voting Police discover your decision to abstain, you will soon find yourself ostracized from modern society and deported to an island with other non-voters, despicable as they are.
To quote a well-known U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, "We can do better."
In the coming election – and every future election, for that matter – I encourage you to consider becoming pro-choice. Rather than chanting "Choose or lose," why not drop the "lose," and let people decide for themselves?
Of course, learn about the issues. Think. Discuss. And, if you like to live on the wild side, debate.
But ultimately, choose. Choose whether you are voting because all your friends are telling you to, or if you hear a calling from deep within. Choose whether you are voting because you saw the Kerry and Bush daughters on the MTV Video Music Awards, or you believe in a candidate's message.
I agree with the candidates' daughters on one point: Political apathy is indeed a problem. But that is where I draw the line. For it is apathy, not abstinence, that plagues America. Abstinence, executed with compassion and conscious intent, is an act all Americans should respect.
As a young American, you owe it to yourself to make your own voting decisions, not those of your peers. Why? Because you have the freedom – and right – to do so.
If, after really taking in your candidates' stances on the issues, your decision to vote for one party still remains strong, then don't think twice about driving to the voting booths or mailing in your absentee ballot.
However, if you choose to not vote because you believe abstaining is the best exercise of political power, then stay home on Election Day. Not out of apathy, but out of personal integrity.
After all, voting is a form of power. Samuel Adams once said, "Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual….but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country."
He was right. Voting is important. So make sure you're voting with your conscience, not your desire to stay en vogue.
Will I vote in the next election? Probably. Will it be for one of the major parties? Probably not. But that is my choice, and it is one I am free to make. The same goes for everyone else.
Whatever you decide, don't vote just because it's "the right thing to do." Vote because you believe in the candidate. Vote because you want to. And if you can't find one single reason to vote, then don't vote at all.
