The Right to NOT Vote

In the last few weeks I've joked around with friends while talking about the upcoming presidential election. When asked whom I'm voting for I simply answer, "Oh, I'm not voting." Although I am more informed than the majority of my peers, I am given a horrifying look of disapproval whenever I use that answer. At first I was simply making a joke, but time and time again the result of this joke ends in my friends being appalled that I could possibly choose to stay home and sit on my ass instead of going to the polls.  This, of course, only makes me actually consider not voting.

I consider myself a moderate Republican who leans to the right when it comes to money and the war on terror and leans to the left on social issues. I am not a big fan of McCain or Obama. So I often ask myself, when picking the lesser of two evils, what is the meaning of my vote? Is voting for a candidate I don't actually believe in better than not voting? What good is my vote in a non-swing state? Is voting now a requirement by law? Did P. Diddy and MTV amend that part of the constitution? 

Millions of uninformed voters will turn out at the polls this year because of major campaigns featuring major celebrities convincing people to vote.  Just imagine if our society put as much emphasis on our other rights as they do voting. There'd be public service announcements on television urging viewers to stay away from Craig's List and hold onto their old furniture because it's "your right to private property."  Or we'd see a commercial showing a mother-to-be registering for her baby shower and having a semi-automatic pistol on her list of baby gifts with a tag line, "Protect her from birth to the future.  Use your right to bear arms." It won't happen because we have the right to NOT protect our private property and NOT bear arms. Whatever happened to the right to NOT vote?  

Regardless of how I feel about this election, I am going to vote.  I have taken the time to learn about the issues and I am stepping up as an informed voter to make up for all of the uninformed voters out there (please click on that link--the video is rather amusing).  I don't know why, but it is quite liberating to live in a country where even the stupidest of stupid can do his/her part to change the world.