why you yes you need to vote this november

Why you, yes YOU, should vote this november
It's an off year election, one that promises to be a low turn out year. And why not, the past year has been nothing but one long example of how governments should not respond to the troubles of it's citizens. Months of congressional debate over whether or not to throw a life line to the highest percentage of unemployed citizens in years. The inabillity for the senate to even discuss over 400 bills passed in the house of representatives. Congress ranks as low as BP in terms of public opinion. So why bother? Because decisions will be made in the coming year, and whoever wins this november is going to run to the largest megaphone and declare that whatever comes out of his or her mouth is what YOU believe. There is no other way for everyone to voice their opinion in this country. People often say you can vote with your wallet. This is quite honestly the worst way to change your world. I haven't been in a mcdonalds in nearly a decade because I believe they unnecessarily target children in their advertisements, I will never effect the board of directors in mcdonalds this way. Not to mention you often have no idea how ceo's spend their companies money in political campaigns just ask the average whole foods or target shopper where the money they spent in those stores went. If you think counting calories is hard imagine the difficulty of actually monitoring every purchase you make to make sure your money goes to political causes you agree with every time. Saying you will vote with your wallet is also giving up on democracy. Democracy gives power to person. Voting with your wallet gives power to the dollar. In other words voting with your wallet is giving in to tyranny.
My point here is not to diminish the influence of boycotts. I'm not going to run into a Macdonals any time soon. My point is to elevate the power of voting. There is a common feeling that people have that their vote doesn't matter. I know that this is going to sound strange but they are right. Everyone who ever told you your vote doesn't matter is 100% correct. Because one vote by any one person doesn't means anything. It is not any single vote that matters, it is your entire voting history. When you don't vote or only occasionally vote you are giving politicians the permision to ignore you. If you only come out 50% of the time or only when "something important" comes up you are telling politicians that they can't count on your vote. And if they can't count on your vote what motivates them to listen to anything you have to say. You want your representatives to listen to you make sure they know you're paying attention and voting every chance you get. You don't like the direction they're going instead of staying at home, vote twice. Primaries serve the purpose of defining the direction candidates are going to move. The candidates know the people that vote in primaries are 10 times more likely to vote in the election, meaning they are listenining to the primary voters 10 times more than people who may vote.
A lot of people keep screaming they want thier country back, as if it went somewhere in the last 18 months. Truth is the best way to think of your country is not like a little marble grabbed by one politician or party at a time. Instead think of it as a giant row boat. And that vote you cast is you using your paddle once. You don't like the direction we're heading don't expect one stroke to change anything, it takes many strokes to move a democracy please don't sit on your paddle.