DON'T vote.
Unless you agree with a candidate 100% on everything they say, don't vote. Don't vote unless there is someone worth voting for.
And for those who say you can't complain about the government if you don't vote, that's bull.
If I vote for the guy who wins, and I don't like what he's doing, THAT'S when I can't complain. I put him there, and now I want to complain about what he's doing there?
And if you vote for the other guy, do you really think it would be any different? He would still do stuff that makes you want to complain.
By not voting, I have every right to complain. If there is no one to vote for that would make a difference in what I am complaining about, then voting would make no difference.
Don't vote, unless there is someone worth voting for.
Important: Before I address this post, I would like to thank people for being polite, accepting and generally staying away from a political allegiances and turning this into a McCain vs. Obama thing. I agree that this should not become a political debate. As far as my post below is concerned, I consider the issue of voting in general, so I don't believe it's any more politically charged than any other post. Of course I write this with the utmost respect to all who may agree or disagree and express my opinion solely without any offense. If anyone objects to this level of debate (which I personally don't have a problem with) - that's fine, and if (as was my first concern) mods want to close this to concentrate on magic, that's fine too. All that said, here is my opinion.
Glenn, I agree on principle, disagree in practice. Not voting as a form of protest is a very legitimate action. Not voting if you don't think either candidate is work a vote is fair enough. If you vote for someone, you also accept the consequences of your decision.
But not voting because you don't agree 100%? Really? There will
never be any sort of consensus on that level. Not with the Republicans, not with the Democrats. On some level, sooner or later, you have to address reality, which is that the two candidates propose different solutions, both of which can be criticised by some section or other of the population. The bottom line? Following your approach makes voting a farce. It's not about making everyone happy with every single thing you say, because there's no perfect solution like that, and nor is there a perfect person.
If you don't wanna vote for whatever reason, that's fine, if you do wanna vote, that's fine too. But to hold off voting because your candidate isn't
perfect in every single policy and every single way, and to hold off voting on the issues that matter to you, the really big issues that your candidate is approaching in the right way for the sole reason that you're not 100% happy one small part of the campaign, now that,
that is a waste of a vote.
To avoid addressing (theoretical, generic) issues A-X because you're not 100% happy with Obama or McCain's stance on issue Y and issue Z, to avoid what you otherwise would do, vote for change on a huge array of issues, because you disagree with one aspect? You're not just disagreeing with issue Y and Z, you're essentially witholding a vote for change on every issue in the political spectrum. Essentially, it's a balance you have to weigh up, and I believe it is wrong to apply such a concrete policy. Are the issues you agree with important enough for you to maybe sacrifice your opinions on something else? This is what you should base your decision on, if you are in this situation.
Vote if you want to, don't vote if you don't want to. But if you want to vote, vote even if you don't agree with every single thing every politician has said in the past 20 years of their political career, nor every single facet of their campaign stances, because quite frankly, if you want to have a hand in making a difference, you can't wait for the perfect time to do it - when you agree with everyone, you can't wait until you get the perfect candidate - when you agree with everything, and you can't throw away a chance to make a difference in several important areas because some is better than none, because one must take
any chance rather than the perfect chance to make changes, and because the crises, the decisions and the time is
now upon America.
