Vote Nagging: Voting, Coercion Free

I AM A LOYAL, patriotic, civic minded American citizen, more grateful than proud to so be, because I consider pride to be too closely akin to arrogance, and I consider pride to be a trap, a deadly sin if you will. I believe that it is my great privilege, and my inalienable right, and my sacred duty as an American citizen living in a democracy, to vote. I have voted at every opportunity since 1974, when I first became eligible by virtue of the fact that I turned eighteen in 1973, and eighteen year olds had been given the right to vote in nineteen seventy one. Many brave Americans have died in battle to protect my right to vote, and to them I am sincerely indebted and grateful. I shall, along with all good Americans, forever hold them dear to my heart, including my father, who served in World War Two. To all veterans, my sincere love and gratitude. For me to miss a chance to vote is unthinkable. If I ever did, I would feel overwhelmingly guilty, as if I had let my beloved country down. How pleasant my memory is of the 1974 mid term election, in which Democrats, in the wake of Watergate, dominated the election, and enticed me to think that progressive politicians and progressive policies would always prevail. Alas, the naivete of a nineteen year old idealist. If ever I fail to cast my ballot, than I am turning my responsibility to govern our great nation over to someone else, and who knows whether my replacement will vote according to my wishes, or according to the sacred principles of intelligent, educated, civic discernment. The great writer and historian Gore Vidal once remarked that those who do not vote are simply people who are sufficiently aware of how the United States political system operates to realize that their vote is meaningless, because the candidates for office are all chosen by a very small fraction of the general population, the wealthy corporate elite, whom Vidal referred to as "our corporate masters". He had a point. In America, regrettably, political offices, especially national ones, are for sale to the highest bidder, on account of the effectiveness of advertising and propaganda, and to the winner, i.e. the highest bidder, go the spoils. Vidal, in point of fact, was quite correct, and he was not afraid to express this tragic truth, because he believed it his duty to do so, and he offered a solution, consisting of nine words enacted into law: "the sale and purchase of political advertising is prohibited". Paid advertising could be replaced by free information as a public service, provided by anyone who has relevant information about the candidates for office. The idea has merit, would not be unconstitutional, unless a conservative Supreme wedded to and in debt to corporate interests decided otherwise, and these nine words would make America great, for the first time ever, politically, rather than corrupt. I, however, refuse to surrender to cynicism, regardless of how appropriate and fact based it is, and I would fight and die for my right to vote. Aside from that, I am glad that this election is over, because, frankly, I am sick, tired, and resentful of anyone and everyone telling me to vote. Within my memory, never have so many people told me to vote in such an obtrusive and obnoxious fashion, as if they were my appointed advisers, and as if i needed to be told. Voting is a right privilege, and a duty, but it is not mandatory, and shouldn't be. Its as if we have been on a national vote nagging binge, and I find it repugnant, and disrespectful of my right to be a bad citizen. It may be that people who do not care enough to vote should not vote, because their vote is not fortified by true citizenship, knowledge, or a sense of purpose, and when they do vote they vote only because they have been browbeaten into it. It seems tragic that anyone at all fails to vote, but, alas, half of eligible voters don't vote, but they indisputably have the right not to, and I think we need to stop telling each other to vote, and simply vote. Anyone who needs to be told to vote, quite possibly is not qualified to cast a ballot. To all the trillions of people who have been telling me and others to vote; mind your own business, vote-nag not, and vote to your heart's contentment.