And, If You Vote For No Other Reason, Vote For This One

The right to be able to vote in the future.

I'm dead serious.  Nothing frustrates me more than to listen to people talk about not voting as though doing so was some kind of noble, selfless act on behalf of the Republic.  And never mind, just for the purpose of this post, how many people have fought and died for your right to sit at home on Election Day.

Your refusal to vote does not stop the election from happening.  A new Congress will be elected, whether you want it to be elected or not.  If you refuse to vote, a magical, better-than-all-of-the-above candidate is not going to show up.  And, even worse, even if such a person existed, he or she would not be inspired to run by your absence from the polling place.

Because all that your refusal to vote accomplishes is the fueling of the apathy that is slowly but surely killing our political system.  It's not just your voice that we lose when you refuse to vote.  It's the voices of hundreds, thousands, even millions of people whose own indifference to their voice in society is encouraged by your own.

And, worse yet, the forces in our society that you resent the most are utterly dependent not on your voting for one of the two major political parties, but on your not voting at all.  In the forty-plus years that I have followed national politics, I have never seen a more blatant effort than the one mounted by the Republicans over the last four years to keep people away from the polls.  They have no shame about either their lust for power or the fact that they can't hold on to that power if you show up.  There have been any number of articles on the Internet, and even in what the former half-term governor of Alaska calls the "lame-stream" media, on this subject.  But, if you need a primer or summary, Mother Jones is happy to help you.

Today, it may be minor restrictions on your right, like voter ID laws.  Do not think those restrictions could not become major ones by the next election.  Do not think that those restrictions could prevent you from voting, now or in the future.  Why shouldn't they, if you don't care enough to vote?  That's not me asking that question.  That's the Republican Party and the larger conservative movement that now completely controls it asking that question.  And don't worry about them finding the answer; they've already got it for you.  And trust me:  you'll dislike that answer even more than you dislike the current crop of candidates.

If you don't want to vote for the Democrats, fine.  Vote for a third, fourth or fifth party.  Vote for a write-in candidate.  Whatever you do, VOTE.  Vote like your life and your country depend on it.

Because they do.  Apathy doesn't create the future.  Voting does.