Why I Choose Not to Vote

I care about the future of the United States, passionate even. In fact, you could surely say I'm slightly obsessive when it comes to the state of the country and direction it seems to be heading towards. I want such multitude of things for the US and it's people, that the list is practically endless.

I want equal rights for men, women, and children of all ethnicities, sexualities, and identities. I want economic improvement, a smaller or even nonexistent national debt. I want the United States to have a massive amount of resources to help not only itself, but other countries as well. I want the "American dream" to become an easily attainable reality for current residents and immigrants alike. I could go on. But the thing I want most for my country, is the ability to change what is wrong and unfair in the United States.

If I have learned anything on my short time on earth, it is that in order to change something in America, we as its residing people have two options. Choose a career path in politics, which requires higher education, a good deal of money, and people who support and back your ideas for the future. Or choose the other, more realistic option, which is to vote for political candidates.

The problem I see, is that neither of those options appeal to me. Neither options grantee change, and in my personal opinion, the latter of the two seems almost more unrealistic to me than the first.

One reason why I choose not to vote is that at 19 years old, I in no way have a large enough amount of knowledge or experience with the American political and voting systems to know who I would vote for if even if I wanted to. I can't say if this is the public schooling systems fault or my own, but either way I feel that I'm not educated enough in politics to make an informative decision on who I would want to be in office. The second reason is that for as long as I can remember, every presidential, or even local candidate that was elected promised change in one way or another. And I remember seeing no change whatsoever. This discourages me to vote greatly, in that I have little faith that change is even attainable.

I realize this is the age-old debate, that if everyone voted, change could happen. But such a large majority chooses not to vote because they have lost faith in the Electoral College and the idea of change, and this makes change impossible. Some people say the solution is to educate everyone enough that they would have a natural desire to vote. But I believe the only way to inspire a person to vote is to show that there could be someone worth voting for.