Vote or Don’t

There’s a lot of “Get out the vote” type ads on TV and radio and the Web. The concept is a great public service thing: remind people to go out and do their one major civic duty as citizens of this country. But on actually giving the concept some thought, I disagree with the commercials.

Much of the news over the past year has been concerning the nearing election day. As we’ve gotten closer to the day, the news has focused even more on the election and the candidates. The airwaves are full of candidate commercials. Everyone should know the election is near and what the choices are.

If you need to have celebrities telling/reminding you to vote, I’d rather you just not vote. I don’t trust that you have a clue what’s going on or which candidate stands for what enough to make an intelligent decision for the president of the country, the governor of the state, the mayor of the city, or the dog catcher for the pound.

If you need to have someone come to your home and goad you into registering and voting, you don’t deserve to vote. If when someone asks you if you’re going to vote, you don’t say, “Yes,” or “I want to,” then I don’t want anyone helping you out.

If you’re just “Meh, I’m thinking about maybe voting,” then you just don’t worry about it. Let people who actually give a damn and maybe have given it some actual thought do the voting. And if some random stranger knocking on your door or calling on your phone can talk you into voting when you weren’t going to bother, you’re a sucker who will vote for whoever they suggest.

I’m not saying you should have already made your decision on who to vote for. I can appreciate that that’s not a decision to make lightly. But you should have already made the decision to vote.

I’d much rather know that a candidate won or lost the election because people who actually care and pay attention voted, rather than think that the tally came up as it did because a big chunk of lazy, apathetic, idiots were prodded into the voting booth.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com