You've Got To Fight For Your Right to...

There is one thing that you must do tomorrow prior to going to bed.

The single most important thing that you will do tomorrow is: vote.

Recently, there has been a [un]cool social movement where young people are no longer voting. Why? Because they “aren’t partial to one candidate or the other” or “don’t want to feed into the lesser of two evil candidates.”

To all you who won’t vote for those reasons, or for others, here is why you should vote and why you should tell all your friends to vote too.

America is a democracy, and in order for a democracy to properly function, everyone must vote. As a citizen of the United States it is your civic duty to support the electoral process and reinforce your regional and national government.

Your vote counts. Election day is the one day a year where your young vote is equal to that of any other American: young or old, rich or poor, famous or not. Your vote is equal to Barack Obama’s vote. Your vote is equal to Madonna’s vote. They are making their votes count, and so should you.

Florida in 2000. Don’t you think the citizens of Florida now understand the value of their vote? Value yours like they do!

People have fought and continue to fight for your right to vote. Thank and honor the soldiers, past and present, who gave up their lives and families to fight for your liberty and freedom. Thank them by voting, because we need to uphold the government at home while they are fighting for it abroad.

If you don’t vote for your rights, don’t expect others to vote on them for you. No one votes with our age group in mind besides us. Everyone votes for their own benefit and if we don’t represent our generation, we will be left with a giant mess to clean up. You should be educated about the issues that will inevitably be affecting your future and vote for what you believe in!

You cannot complain if you don’t vote. If you didn’t care enough to vote [for or] against Obama, than you really shouldn’t care enough now to complain [or praise] his current achievements [or lack there of]. Simply put, if you didn’t vote, you have no right to whine about it, because you did nothing to affect the outcome. And no, saying that you didn’t vote doesn’t prove that you are better than each of the candidates, but merely means that you are too ignorant to learn about and value the issues at hand. Being ignorant < having a different opinion.

Voting sets a good example. Know younger teens? Show them its cool to be educated by voting!

If you don’t vote, you should avoid celebrating holidays that celebrate our independence, like Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. There is direct correlation between these holidays and your right to vote. If you don’t think its important to vote, but you enjoy fireworks and turkey, then you are a giant hypocrite, and no one likes those.

Vote to counter someone else’s vote or to spite the political ads that attack the characters of candidates. Think its annoying to watch and/or listen to candidates constantly bashing each other, rather than addressing the issues? Educate yourself and vote. Want to cancel out the vote of your overly obnoxious democratic friend? Vote, because your vote is worth just as much as theirs!

Bottom line? You should vote because you can, and that should be reason enough.