Politics of the Apathetic

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.

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