Exercising my OTHER right

I've decided to exercise my right NOT to vote. Up until this week I had actually planned on hauling my cookies to the voting booth and checking off my choices for change in this world, but then I got more junk mail. And my phone rang during dinner and after 12 dozen "hellos" an automated voice came over the line and wanted to tell me how his opponent has screwed up in the past and how he wouldn't do that that to me because he cared about me.

It felt about as genuine as hook-up line in a bar before the one night stand you live your life regretting. I almost dropped the phone and ran to the shower to scrub the dirty lies off of me but I withheld because it was dinner time and small people would have looked at me funny.

So this morning, before my husband took off for work, I looked at him an unapologetically declared, "I'm not voting today. You?"



"Nope. No one worth putting in office if you ask me". He replied and walked out the door.

What a relief that was! Now we wouldn't be arguing over the issues tonight at dinner.

It was while I was reading today in a forum that I felt completely at ease with my decision not to cast my vote. Someone made the statement that those who didn't vote should feel ashamed. I don't feel ashamed. I feel like as much as it is my right and privilege to vote it's also my right and privilege not to. Someone else commented on how the commercials on television were horrible and the politicians or their stabs at the opposition at the very least, were ugly and childish. Someone else commented on how it was too hard to know what or who to believe with all the smear tactics arriving in our maiboxes, through our phones and on TV and that's when it hit me; that's why I don't want to vote this year. I am plum worn out at all the high drama and mud slinging from the politicians. They confuse the issues by pointing out what everyone else has done wrong and spend very little of that 30 second ad telling us what exactly they will do. They all have plans. They all have "new ideas" or want to "get back to basics" - plans and basics mean different things to different people, spend more time telling me what those things are or what they mean to you and less time telling me how much I should not vote for the criminal you make your opponent out to be.

It's exhausting and has worn me out. I realize that I'll hear "Well, if you don't vote you have no reason to bitch about the current state of things..."

AWWW BULLSHIT. I can too complain because I for one, KNOW that I didn't choose them.

Skewed logic? Maybe. OK Yes, but that's fine with me. I can say I didn't vote because I couldn't see the truth through the propaganda and it wouldn't have been right for me to vote for someone who I didn't think could do the job that needed done.

That also means that I didn't think there was anyone qualified to do the job and you know what? That's entirely possible; There might not actually be anyone qualified at all. 

I'm not political and I personally hate politics. But at least I'm not out there voting for someone I don't believe in just for the sake of voting and I'm not voting just to represent my political party for the sake of having done so.

I'd rather exercise my right to make no choice than make  a choice that I can't fully support.