It’s 2012, which means it is impossible to turn on any news channel without seeing “The Race to the White House,” “2012 Primary Fest,” or some other derivative of these plastered everywhere. I personally try to avoid politics. The only election coverage I am willing to watch comes from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. This isn’t to say I’m uninformed. I do on occasion watch/read real news, not just because I’m forced to for a writing assignment, but to stay remotely in-tune with the world… and because nothing better is on TV around noon. I am well aware that Romney won a decisive victory in Florida, and that Gingrich won a decisive victory in South Carolina, and that Santorum won a decisive victory in Iowa, and that tonight someone will win a decisive victory in Colorado, Missouri, and Minnesota. The problem is I don’t care. I don’t care because I don’t vote.
I personally am not registered to vote. I’ve been told on many occasions that, “You have to vote and make your voice heard.” I have noticed that people who say this don’t want you to make your voice heard unless it agrees with their voice. If I want my voice heard, I’ll speak. Whoever hears it, good for them. When I want people to know how I feel about something, I’ll put it on Facebook.
“Don’t you want to make a difference?” In all the elections I have been able to vote in not one of them came down to one vote. If an election I don’t vote for in the future comes down to one vote, I may feel bad, but I will shrug it off and say, “Whatever.”
I’ll admit right now that I have never said any of the things to anyone who tells me I “need” to vote. I always just say, “I can’t vote because I’m not a citizen,” or “I can’t vote because I am a convicted felon.” The former allows me to try out a British accent. The latter will usually scare them off and leave me to do whatever it is I was doing.
In conclusion, I am not trying to convince anyone to that voting isn’t important. I am just trying to say that no matter how much you care, I still will not. This isn’t a diatribe at the broken political structure, it’s a diatribe at people who try to get me to vote. This coming November I will not be voting, however I will be wearing an I voted sticker to avoid confrontation.