Should I vote in 2012?

Yes? No? Maybe?

 Hello, USA. How are you tonight? Me, I'm a little under the national weather. I am feeling overwhelmed by the media, thanks to all of the opinions about the presidential debate, and who took the fall for Libya, and why the world shouldn't vote for a Mormon, or how the President is incapable of running a country because he hasn't run a business. Do you catch my drift? If you live in the US right now, it's everywhere. There isn't a news station anywhere that isn't airing some commentary on the opinions of Dr. Whodunnit and Professor of Everything from the University of Big Town. We are inundated in media. I cannot avoid it anywhere I go. The cafe has a TV. Facebook has sponsored ads. Bumper stickers accost me on the highway. Yard signs are hazards for my dogs on their nightly walk. And with the way of our world, the presidential candidates accidentally whisper too loudly near anyone, and it hits social media like a fire storm, and the whole world hears about 23 seconds later.

I am starting to envy my grandparents and even my parents for the way voting was when they were my age. I hear how much money gets spent on ad campaigns, and I want to cry. I tried to figure out how to donate money I didn't have to people in Sudanese refugee camps, and Mitt and Obama blew millions on a smear ad to tell me "facts" about how jobs suck and the economy blows. WHY??? How can anyone consider anything either of these men say worth our time when such blatant waste happens right in front of our faces?? What happened to simpler times??? (Ok, must calm down. I am not here to pick sides.)

So, anyways, I am thinking of just not voting this term. Yikes. Should I duck from the virtual garbage slinging? Should I expect a verbal A-bomb to drop on this here little blog? The reason I ask is because I Googled "I'm not voting". The weirdest thing was that there wasn't much going on, ya'll. I mean, I am pretty good at finding things out there. I have yet to find much. Maybe the internet is being censored. Or maybe it's scary shit to talk about not voting with how rabid people get when it comes to some of the issues being raised. I have been debating whether or not to write about voting, and thanks to my dad's comment that no publicity is bad publicity, I decided to go for it. Maybe my blog post will be read by no one. Maybe nobody gives a shit. Or maybe my generation has a group of people who are so lost in the haze that is politics and social media and scandals that we form a movement and we say "No thanks, I'm not voting."

In some of my searching, I found this quote by George Carlin:
"I have solved this political dilemma in a very direct way: I don't vote. On Election Day, I stay home. I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain,' but where's the logic in that? If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote -- who did not even leave the house on Election Day -- am in no way responsible for that these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created."
One of the reasons I have been hesitant to say that I am thinking of not voting is because of how I am afraid of being harassed. I have been told before that I have no right to say anything if I don't vote. I personally feel like our country was created by people who wanted to give us a choice. I am not interested in being one of those who claim they are voting for the "lesser of two evils". I feel like that's such a cop out.

This quote from C.S. Lewis came up in a discussion with my family the other day: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
I think that's exactly where we are right now. We are being choked with all the promises of our potential leaders, telling us that we need them, that they are looking out for our best interests. If we don't elect them, we will be condemning ourselves. They are all knowing, and they know what's right for our country.

I was having a discussion online the other night with a some people about choosing Libertarian. I am struggling with that idea because all I hear is that by choosing Libertarian, I will split the vote, thus reelecting Obama. While I would like to consider Libertarian, I don't want either major parties to win, so I feel very conflicted about the possibility of "accidentally" placing my vote in the wrong hands. I am still doing lots of reading on this subject to see what's out there. It's a tough decision. 

If you feel like your ideas about voting are similar, or you want to share your rationalizations on voting, feel free to comment. I would love to hear from others who are struggling with voting this year. Sometimes I feel very alone in this issue. Thanks for letting me know how you feel!