Please do not vote. Whoever you are, ignore all those people who tell you to do it, and just listen to me: DON'T VOTE.
Voting is a big responsibility. It's a powerful thing, and therefore it's also a dangerous thing. Trivializing our voting privilege with sentiments like "Get out there and vote, it doesn't matter who you vote for, just make your voice heard!" makes me sick to my stomach.
Democracy only works with an informed electorate. (If you're reading this, it probably means you're the sort of person who reads things on the Internet, and I'm preaching to the choir.) Assuming a standard bell curve of informed-ness, 50% of the population is uninformed! Do you really want these people to be shaping government policy? Do you want them taking decision power away from the people (like you!) who care enough to inform themselves? Of course not!
Now, a caveat: I'm not advocating the creation of obstacles to prevent people from voting. Of course the privilege to vote should accompany citizenship regardless of gender, race, religion, class, level of education, whether you drive a car and have a photo ID, or any other such arbitrary nonsense. What I'm saying is, although EVERYBODY has the option to vote, NOT EVERYBODY should choose to exercise it.
Let's face it -- half the population just isn't as smart as the other half. They lack the mental complexity to understand the far-reaching ramifications of major national and global issues. They don't appreciate the complex web of cause-and-effect relationships between governments and economies. And they really can't be bothered to spend any time reading about or otherwise improving their perspective.
These ignorant masses form their opinions because of TV and radio soundbites, oft-repeated platitudes, emotional non-issues, oversimplifications, campaign slogans, which candidate they would rather drink beer with, etc. Such mobocracy demands only bread and circuses -- any ruling elite that provides them, no matter how corrupt, will do.
So PLEASE... if you don't feel like you have a solid understanding of the issues at stake; if you can't make up your mind between two candidates, don't know exactly what they stand for, or don't know who they are; if a ballot issue sounds good, but you haven't done your research on it, DON'T VOTE. A bad opinion is worse than no opinion at all.
And if you really MUST vote, I guess that's fine as long as you vote the same as me.
