Just Shut Up, and Vote

You know, when I people tell me, "Why should I vote? It won't matter.", I consistently tell people they should, because if you don't it really wouldn't matter. Especially when we are having so many critical things to consider, like whether we should continue being at war, what we should do about our corrupt and dysfunctional economy, and placing people in leadership who will fix the broken system we call democracy.

Whether your candidate wins or not, it is not just about who the next president is going to be, but a number of leaders lower on the rung, like your state senator, representative, circuit court judges, mayors, supervisors, councilmen, or propositions on bills that will closely effect your life. If you don't believe me, go to http://www.smartvoter.org/, and search by your zip code. I would be more than willing to bet that you would find a large amount of things to vote on, and you would end up spending well over an hour in a voting booth deciding over what to vote on, because there is so much to vote on. So there is no excuse not to vote. By saying that your vote doesn't matter is just as ignorant as saying that there's no sound coming out of your mouth when you're speaking.

In all reality, I would think that a person may be semi-correct in saying that when voting for president, let's say, the vote may not directly matter, even though it does, because of the complicated structure of our nation's government. There is a lot that goes on when a president makes a decision, but due to our system of checks and balances, technically your choice for president doesn't effectively mean that all your needs matter. But when you consider things like propositions and state offered bills that you can vote on every November (not just every 4 years). These items on the ballot directly effect you, because they are laws that will be put into place immediately based on the popular vote. For example, in my state, they have a legislative proposition concerning the fostering of the renewable energies sector. Whatever I choose to vote on this proposition, I know that it will go back to my state legislature with my direct opinion on how legislators should handle energy matters that are directly effecting me. If you consider this, if the presidential candidate you are choosing, leaned in favor of a legislative bill like the one I just mentioned, your vote would in fact not directly matter, because the president is an executor of the law, and can only make a decision on legislative propositions that are brought forth by Congress.

I suggest that if you don't think any of the presidential candidates matter to you, fill in the blank under the candidate's names with your name, and vote on the other matters that really effect you closer to home. Your vote does matter, so shut up, and fill out your absentee ballot, or get down to your local polling place. Go here first http://www.rockthevote.com/rtv_register.html