Why We Vote

We do not live in a democracy. This isn’t bullshit pseudo-anarchy “I’m going to remember the 5^th of November because Natalie Portman was so good in Black Swan” kind of statement. It’s fact. If we lived in a true democracy that means we would vote for everything. Everything. All of the countless bills and laws and roundabout legislation that goes through the political process. Sure, the first month or whatever of having that power would be great. Everyone would be reading tax reform and pretending they know what it means. There will be elitist tweets about how many times you’ve voted this week. Then it would get tiring. We don’t even reply to all of our Facebook invites anymore. If a survey takes longer than a few minutes, we quit in the middle. We should not vote on laws.

So we have a democratic republic. A bunch of poor saps decide to do this terrible job for us. We elect them to represent us and to serve our needs. Now that means you have a couple of guys trying to speak for an entire state of millions of people and one more fool who will to speak for over 300 million people. They do it because they want to make a difference or they want to help America or they’re just on a power trip.

Either way, they don’t make us void of responsibility. In fact, we may have more. We choose those men and women. No they are not perfect people because there is no such thing. There is not a candidate that has 100% of your views because you are not running. You do your research, you understand their positions and you pick the one who you think will do the best job.

Today isn’t about polls that say they have already predicted the outcome or voting because then you are “allowed” to complain for the next four years. It’s about taking part in what allows our country to function. We have a civic duty to vote and that is what makes us part of the country. The president and the 100 senators and the 435 voting members of the House of Representatives aren’t all of America. We are America.

So Google the candidates for a bit. Read their views. Find your polling station. Vote. Wear your little sticker with pride and forever mock everybody who was too lazy/”busy”/dumb to vote.

You've got this.