Here’s what I think about not voting.
If there was ever a time when one could make a good argument not to vote, it is now. It seems quite clear that confidence in both of the presidential candidates is at an all-time low. To make matters much worse, many who see it as their civic duty to vote find themselves in a conundrum that they’ve never experienced in the past. They feel very uncomfortable voting for either candidate.
This has led to many people expressing that they will not vote. As I read in one email that a friend forwarded to me which was written by a conservative thinker, “Vote as if your ballot determines nothing whatsoever—except the shape of your own character.” He concludes that being that his character will not permit him to vote for either candidate, he will not vote. To him and anyone else who is thinking of not voting, I ask you this question. When you are faced with a fork in your road and you are not happy with going in either direction because they will both have negative consequences, what do you do? How do you decide which path to choose or whether to remain right where you are without moving forward? If you had a choice between losing $3 million or $1 million, would you sit back and let fate have its way or would you take on the responsibility given to you and make a choice.
No one came into this world with a contract saying that their life would be easy. Anyone who’s lived just a few years knows this. Character is never shaped in the easy decisions we make, always in the hard ones. Don’t abstain just because you don’t have clarity. Don’t abstain because the choice available is “the lesser of 2 evils.” Your obligation is to contribute to the best possible option even when that choice is only a better version of “2 evils.” You see, most often in life, we do not get to choose our circumstances, but we do have a choice as to how we will respond to them. Giving up that choice is giving up ourselves, giving up our power, giving up our humanity.
So when November 8, 2016 arrives, don’t put your hands in your pockets. Stand your full self up and make the best decision you can make, pull that lever and vote! This is the power of democracy, this is the power of a human being and this is what makes your actions so valuable. Your ability to choose! Go out and vote!
This is what I think about voting in this election, what do you think?
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