So, this year I'm not voting. Bring on
the hate!
Maybe your first feeling is contempt, or relief because you
know I would have voted against your candidate. You may be copy-and-pasting URLs to FunnyOrDie celebrity videos so that I'll be shamed by Adam Scott into voting. To you I say: You may
have drunk the Kool-Aid.
We've all drunk some form of it. Very
few of us will change our minds about politics because of a rational
argument. I didn't vote for George W. Bush in my first election because of reason; I voted because of religion. Ditto Barack Obama in the 2008 primaries and Ralph Nader in the 2008 general election and Jill Stein in 2012. So I'll start by saying that you aren't going to be able to
show me the error of my ways here, and I'm not going to be able to
convince you to do an about turn, either. What I'd like to do is gain a
little of your respect. Please understand that your position—the
patriotic position, the position of the responsible citizen who uses the tools given them, the
position of the people who vote their conscience—is already
broadcast on every channel, streaming on every network, posted on
every religious forum, communicated to every child in school. So the
nonvoters are probably not just in need of a little education;
they've heard the message. Your voice has already been heard, is
being heard, and will be heard as long as human government exists.
