Hello all. Thanks for reading this.
Or, at least I hope you do.
Look, I know there’s a lot of people telling you to vote, and telling me to vote, and basically pointing out that you are the worst American since Hitler, who I know was German which makes him THAT MUCH WORSE of an American. However, I would encourage you to open your mind and read for a minute. Please understand that I’m not coming at this from a place of bitterness or blatant counter-culturism. And also understand that when I’m explaining why I won’t be voting today, I’m not saying that YOU shouldn’t vote or that you are stupid for doing so. I encourage everyone to make their own choices and really have no more interest in swaying you towards not voting than I have in swaying you towards sleeping on your stomach instead of your side at night.
The best way I can think to go about explaining myself is by repeating some of the common arguments I’ve heard that are trying to convince me to vote.
Every Vote Counts!
This is absolutely not true. When Al Gore ran against George Bush Sht. (that’s an abbreviation for “shitty” by the way), Gore won the popular vote. That means more people in America voted for Al Gore than any other candidate. And he lost. In fact, this has happened FOUR TIMES since the creation of the electoral college.
I’m not going to get into it too much, but you can read this article (http://www.howstuffworks.com/electoral-college.htm) which will explain to you that the electoral college was created basically because:
1. In goddamn 1787 people were worried that a candidate from a highly-populated area might swing the vote in his favor simply because he was known by more people, which is a reasonable concern. In 1787.
2. In goddamn 1787 it was decided that it would not be a good idea to give the average person so much power. Because we were dum-dums.
Now, I think we should all sit back and briefly consider how much those two things have changed since 1787. The first is a no-brainer. With the way the media is today and the inaccessability of candidates, the idea that a guy from New York knows a couple hundred more people is asinine. The second is almost worse. This is a classic case of your government claiming to know what’s good for you. I’m not going to get wild and conspiratorial because I don’t know that the electoral college is rigged, but also because I don’t have anything to prove as they’ve gone against the people 4 times! It’s not a worry about what if because it has already happened, and yet we haven’t changed anything.
So to have an election in 2000 be fucked up by a system that has continued since 1787 is ridiculous and makes it difficult to convince me that my vote is important.
If You Don’t Vote, You Can’t Complain!
This is making an assumption that I don’t care, or at least that I don’t care until things affect me.
Let’s look at it a different way.
If I gave you a choice for lunch, to drink a 1 oz. shot of diarrhea or to eat a 1 oz. piece of shit, you could think of it two ways. It could be the hardest choice you ever made because both options suck, or it could be a complete non-decision because neither choice results in a good outcome for you. Whether you made a choice between the two or just said “Surprise me”, however, wouldn’t mean you were waiving your right to be upset about ingesting feces.
Voting for what you believe in is a right. But if voting is really that important and such an obligation, I would love to hear how many of you voted for your local judges, sheriff, and so on. How many of you voted for the people that you have a slim chance of actually encountering? Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize that your county commissioner didn’t have cool posters.
But you should vote just because we wouldn’t want so-and-so to win!
Yeah, I get that. But honestly, I’m disappointed and burned out on the idea of not voting FOR anybody but instead just using my vote to cancel out the vote of someone else.
I’m not really in love with either guy. We don’t care about the same things.
Let’s put it this way. In the next 3 years I’ll end up spending about $10,000 on my personal health, most of it dental and orthodontic. All out of pocket. This is a huge expense, and it’s financially crippling, but I don’t really have a choice. I am, overall, a healthy guy. I take care of myself, I exercise, I don’t smoke, and I drink in moderation. I had one physical in the last 10 years, and the doctor literally said, “I don’t know what you’re doing here. You don’t need to come back for another 5 years.”
My point is, I’m living well, and I’m working full-time, and I’m paying for health insurance, but because of the way my face formed I’m paying $10,000 out of pocket to have a mouth that works. Not one that looks pretty, one that functions.
We are currently under the dreaded socialist Obamacare, and it’s costing me $10,000. Under whatever Mitt Romney would do, I’m guessing it would also cost about $10,000. I think my problems would be exactly the same. I honestly do.
There are lots of others out there in similar situations. I mean, if someone has diabetes, why wouldn’t it be in our best interest to have that person properly medicated? And if you think that your life isn’t going to end in a couple thousand dollars of hospital bills, you’re a fucking idiot.
Frankly, I think that’s fucked up. But you know what I’m going to do about it? Take care of it myself. Because I’m the one who has to live with it. Not Obama, not Romney.
Honestly, I don’t complain about the government often because it’s futile. And when I do, it’s rarely targeted at one politician or another. My life, honestly, has changed a lot more based on the things I’ve done personally than anything a politician has ever enacted.
You should at least vote on the local issues!
Why?
Because when I look at the local issues, I see the same shit.
Abortion.
Weed.
Again, two things that I don’t think matter. I mean, they DO because we have all this crap going on about them. But no politician has really addressed the issue.
The issue with abortion would easily be solved by easy access to birth control and a moral change that allows us to admit that people are going to have sex that’s no procreative. Also, by reforming the adoption process to make it easier for the right people to get kids and impossible for the wrong people to do so. If we eliminate the unwanted children before they are conceived or eliminate the burden of unwanted children on their unprepared parents, I bet we would see a dramatic decrease in abortion.
The problem is that not one politician has the guts to come out and say, “Look, people are fucking. That has not stopped in human history. So let’s make it possible to fuck without having a baby because frankly, the cost of free birth control to the country pales in comparison to the cost of just a few unwanted children.”
And weed? Yeah, I don’t think people need to be in prison for weed. I really don’t. But this has gone around so many times that I just don’t care anymore.
Why can’t we make some kind of deal where if your personhood or your weed amendment or whatever gets defeated three times in a row, you have to take a 5-year break? It’s just not helping anyone.
You know what? Fine. You can just not participate then!
Really? Because I haven’t found that to be true.
Yeah, we all know about the phone calls and the mail and the yard signs, and I think that’s all a complete bullshit waste of money.
But honestly, it’s the social media nonsense that really took the cake this year.
Enough. I get it.
Badgering people to vote is stupid. It’s stupid because it hasn’t changed my mind. A lot of people I respect and enjoy feel very strongly about voting, and that’s great for them and I’m happy that they have found something they are passionate about. I’m just not. I just don’t believe in it.
If you really think voting is important, GO, VOTE, and then I would like to politely ask that you leave me alone about it.
If you don’t vote, it’s just lazy!
I seriously, genuinely believe that writing down my feelings about it has taken a lot more effort than it took you to go vote.
Okay, but don’t come crying to me when jackbooted thugs break down your door!
Ah, yes. The Escape from New York argument.
Alright, dig this.
The first amendment to our constitution concerns free speech.
Did you know that what I write on here is not necessarily considered protected speech?
Even if I were to, say, lose a job based on what I wrote here, did you know that I would have to pay out of pocket for an attorney, and that the company that pays me would naturally be able to afford a much better attorney?
And did you know, that even if my speech were protected, I live in a state where it is legal to fire an employee without giving any reason whatsoever?
Again, I don’t want to get overly paranoid, but I already live in a state where the first amendment to the constitution really doesn’t apply to me in the way I need it to. So I really don’t see how voting for either jagoff is going to protect me whatsoever.
~
Okay, that’s the gist.
I just want to say that although there was some anger in there, this doesn’t come from a place of anger so much as it does from a place of fatigue.