My election-day statement on voting

Don't vote.

Seriously. Who cares? I don't. If you want to not vote, that's a-okay by me.

Every election year I dread the rush of cheerful reminders to vote, vote, vote. You know, I know it's election day. I know I have the right to vote. And it's not that I don't think voting is a good thing; I absolutely do.

But I also think if the general populace has its head so far up its ass that it has to be constantly reminded and pushed into voting, much the same way my children need to be told five or six times to pick up their toys before they actually get around to it... Then man, I'd rather they not do it.

I am not a child. I don't need to be henpecked into voting. All this "Go vote! Get out and vote!" stuff makes me feel like a little kid whose Mommy pinned a note to my coat reminding me not to forget my mittens.

Seriously. If you want to vote, that's great. If you don't? That's fine with me too. And you know what else? If you don't vote, you still have every right in the world to bitch and complain, because whether you vote or not you're still an American and you have the right to bitch and complain. Nobody has the right to tell you you can't bitch and complain about who's in the White House or the Senate or whatever, just because you didn't vote--voting is a right, not an obligation. What if the candidate you would have voted for lost in a landslide, and your vote wouldn't have made a difference at all?

Participate in election day, or don't. I'm not bothered either way. And if you hate both candidates and decide you want no part of either of them, good for you. I can never figure out why people insist you participate in a process when you don't want to. Or don't care. The simple truth is, there is a large portion of the population whose lives change not one bit no matter who the President is. There are some people who are genuinely undecided, and what's wrong with that? Why should they be forced to make a choice, when they're equally happy or unhappy with either?

Nobody should be insisting you vote for a candidate in whom you don't believe, simply so you can get your sticker or whatever and not be given dirty judgemental looks by strangers--strangers for whom it's none of their goddamn business if you voted or not, or what that vote was.

So there you go. That's my election-day statement. Vote or don't; I'm certainly not going to tell you what to do. You're welcome here either way.