To Vote or Not to Vote

My reoccuring thoughts and frustrations on voting and choosing a side:

When I tell people that I won’t vote, they question it and I take heat for not voting.

My explanation:

If I don’t support the system that is currently in place, then voting for voting sake would make me a hypocrite, no? Why would I vote if I don’t support the system. If I do not support what it has to offer?

A) It creates corrupted officials who change their beliefs simply just to gain votes and popularity. Therefore, I do not like any of the candidates and I won’t vote for them, especially since their platforms are built upon calling out what others are doing wrong and not actually explaining their positions and actions for creating change or policy or doing right.

B) The perpetual nature of the two party system creates and furthers division, especially since people think they need to chose one or the other (dem. or rep.). This pushes people to become even more cemented in their political ideologies.

C) We should not think of ourselves as republicans or democrats. When someone asks me whether I am liberal or conservative, I respond that I am both and neither at the same time. Meaning that I support both conservative ideologies and liberal ideologies at times and I disagree with certain ideologies of both at other times. I shouldn’t have to choose one or the other to facilitate myself with. Rather I (and others) should be able to just choose the standpoint I most agree with on any given political issue, freely as I see fit.

D) You could argue that I should not sit back and refrain from voting, and instead be active by using the system in order to counteract the system and create change. Ok, but at the current time, I don’t see or I don’t believe there is in fact a way that we could create change within the system. Voting for a potential 3rd party candidate is the same as throwing your vote away. Forcing myself to vote for one of the two major parties would contradict my beliefs mentions above, and thus I don’t see any way that voting would truly represent and express my current beliefs.

E) If the system is not going to change, and if we cannot change the system by participating in it because it only perpetuates the problems within it, then the question is left: how do we change the system that represents us if we are not willing to participate in it? It is here where I am left at a loss. Either way, I have to deal with the rules, regulations, and policies that are decided for me and above me by Democratic and Republican representatives — this I have come to terms with and accepted — so I will not vote.

Post Thoughts:

Although the above summarizes what I believe and expresses my conflict with the system of voting, our current circumstance for the 2020 election have forced me to vote even though I do not love who I am voting for. Even though I am still frustrated, it must be done.