Vote: Your Right, Your Duty

Why Vote? I have heard many reasons given “My vote is worthless”, or “I don’t have time or interest to stay informed on the issues”. Voting to me is one of the dearest privileges that we have living in America. So why do these views persist? Perhaps what Thomas Paine wrote in The American Crisis may give us some insight “What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. . . The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.” We have been born with these freedoms and few of us have had to truly sacrifice to secure them. To be free from self-serving, autocratic leaders has been the dream all people throughout history. Exercising the right to vote is the most direct, tangible exercise of our right to be free from tyranny. To be sure, as with all human institutions, democracy is imperfect. As Winston Churchill said, “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” No other form of government has proven to better advance the cause of human freedom, justice, and equality than democracy. Our rights are “inalienable”, but from the beginning of recorded history, governments have repressed these rights. Exercising your right to vote in the primary and general elections maintains our government and protects our liberties. Whatever your political affiliation may be, vote. It is your right and your duty.