I'll Ask Again In Two Years

Let the 2018 election season commence!  


Dear God, Jeremy.  We've barely maintained our sanity just getting through this election, and you're on to the next one?  


I'm actually behind.  There are already Plenty of Articles out There about who is going to run for president in 2020.  These articles are by people who do this type of stuff for a living.  It's nonsense, sure...but it's paid nonsense.

But LIR is right.  We shouldn't get ahead of ourselves and look past today's election and the importance it brings to our country, our democracy, and quite frankly, our place in the world.  I'm going to give my bi-annual message to the people.  It's a little different than most other messages you'll hear today, but I think it's just as valid:

Don't be afraid to not vote.  

Everyone else tells you how important this election is, and how critical it is to make your voice heard in the sea of millions of voters.  But to me, those can be conflicting messages.  Here's what I mean.  If the election and voting is important to you, by all means, vote. 

If you have to be reminded that today is election day, and reminded that it's your "civic duty" to vote, please don't vote. 

If you don't know 100% which candidate you're voting for in each race, please don't vote.  If you only care about the presidential race, it's perfectly okay to leave the others blank.

If you don't know where each candidate truly stands on whatever issues that matter to you, please don't vote.  Of course, by "truly stands," I mean not listening to what the other candidate says about their opponents policy positions, not getting the bulk of your policy information from pithy Facebook posts by partisan blogs, only watching/listening to media sources which provide opinions you already agree with.  The League of Women Voters runs a great informational website on every race without bias or slant on policy proposals.  It's not too late to become an informed voter. 

I firmly believe that the most important part of a democracy is informed voters.  I am an informed voter.  When I walked into my voting booth at number 89 this morning, I knew exactly who I was voting for and why.  I perfectly understand that regardless of my personal position on any policy issue, approximately half of the people in the country disagree with that stand.  That's okay.  If you disagree with me, and you vote the other direction, then we'll count up who wins.  If I get my vote cancelled by somebody else for whom my preferred policies do not work as well, so be it.  That's what voting is for. 

If I get my vote cancelled out by somebody who says, "I'm a registered *insert political party here* so that other candidate is trying to destroy America," then I have a problem.  A thoroughly uninformed vote is cancelling mine out for no reason other than a D or an R at the end of someone's name, or a fear of a phantom policy position they saw on a picture on Twitter, or that guy on *insert partisan media outlet here* told them to. 

I have voted.  By the time you read this, most of you probably will have as well.  But, if I can save one informed vote from the purgatory of the ignorant, it will have been worth it.