Don’t Vote
It’s Election Day! Go vote!
Or maybe not.
Many people whom I highly respect take the view that simply showing up to vote is a duty and this urge people to vote regardless of how they might vote. This has always seemed odd to me. If voting is all that matters, then we’re admitting that those who sacrificed for our right to vote sacrificed for a game with no purpose other than bringing a community together in a political ritual.
But I still think that on some level maybe voting maters. Thus I believe that you shouldn’t vote unless you are going to vote well. If I believe that one candidate is better than her opposition, then I don’t want you to simply show up to vote for the inferior choice.
Voting without careful thought and research into the candidates and questions is an insult to those who care passionately about the issues at hand an serves to reduce the value of their votes. Please only “just show to to vote” if you are trying to make a statement about political apathy or something of that sort.
I’m not voting today, and I find relief in that. Perhaps it is the recent reminders of Faithful Citizenship at my parish the past month, or just memories of passionately voting for a candidate that I later regretted, but I am happy to not overimagine the importance of my absences from the polls today.
Agreed!
I kind of wish they would stop giving out those “I vote” stickers. I don’t have enough fingers to count the number of people I suspect voted just so they could Instagram a pic of themselves with the sticker!