I keep hearing over and over again, “I’m not voting.”

I don’t know why I feel so strongly about this but I do:

We All Must Vote!

According to Joan Didion…

So that’s what I did.

And the first thing that I came up with was this…

Voting is our right and our responsibility.

People who have decided not to vote have said, “What if you don’t like who is running? What if both candidates were anti-semetic, would you vote?

But I disagree.

I think…

In life, we are often faced with choices that are not ideal.

For me, selecting from a menu is an exercise in elimination more than it is about abundant choice.

I prefer not to eat beef or chicken. I don’t eat lamb, veal, salmon or tuna. I consider fat and calorie intake.

With all this in mind, I’m sometimes left with boring white fish.

I might not always like my choices—but still—I choose.

A recent Pew Research Center survey said that people are deciding who to vote for based on the fact that they oppose the other candidate.

I guess it’s true we’d prefer to make a choice from a place of strong conviction, abundant choice, but if that’s not the case, should we opt out?

Who cares how you make your choice. Just make one and vote.

What’s to gain in saying, “I’m not voting”?

When my brother-in-law was young and angry at my mother-in-law, in protest he would say, “I’m not eating.”

This drove my mother-in-law crazy and got her to respond, placate, beg. My brother-in-law got the result he wanted.

But in not voting, you get nothing.

Especially not a right to complain after!

Or even worse, I can hear it now…

All those people claiming they knew that particular candidate would make an awful president. They will think they are entitled to the “I TOLD YOU SO” speech. They will then go on to profess how wise they were not to have voted for him/her.

This is their way of pretending they were right— no matter who wins.

President Obama spoke at Howard University and said it perfectly,

“When we don’t vote, we give away our power. Disenfranchise ourselves… So don’t think you’re making a political protest. You’re not. You’re abdicating the biggest right and responsibility you as an American possess.”

More recently he said, “Democracy itself is on the ballot right now.”

There.

I’ve written about it.

I’m clear about what I think and what I want to say…