4: Election day

Today is Election day. You already know this, if you live in the US, and I hope you already have (or are still planning to) vote(d).

J and I cast our votes first thing this morning. The polling places opened at 7 a.m. and we were there bright and early. In fact, we were the first voters to submit our ballots at our polling place.

Politics are not a topic that I engage in very often on social media, but I don’t hide where I stand and I do feel strongly about one’s duty to cast your vote.

You might think “oh, midterm elections are not as important” or “my vote is not going to make a difference anyway”, but you know what? If everybody thinks that way, and a very high percentage of people in this country unfortunately do, we have what you call low voter turn out and what that means is that other people (the ones that are actually going to the polls) are deciding in which direction this country is going.

I believe that you have no right to complain, if you don’t engage in the election process and haven’t voted. Are politics exhausting, infuriating, confusing and ridiculous? Yes. Yes to all of this. Especially in this country (sorry, but it’s true). But nothing will change unless people — all people! –demand change and unless we get a clearer picture of what the majority of people want in this country. I think overall it’s pretty clear what people want, even though the political system is a little screwed up and there are still some stick-in-the-muds who act like the proverbial cry-babies if things are not going their way and try everything to put spokes in the political wheel in order to impede change. Not cool.

My point: you really do not have an excuse not to vote. You don’t have the excuse to say that your vote doesn’t matter, or worse, that you don’t know who to vote for. Because honestly, that’s part of your responsibility  as an adult living in a democratic country: to listen to the news or get online occasionally to inform yourself and help get representatives elected. People that represent you and your ideas of this country that you live in.