You Must Vote

You must vote. The future of our nation depends on it.

It’s kind of a cliché statement. Anyone with a political agenda will be practically pleading for your vote come November, but many don’t vocalize the other half of the sentence:

You must vote (for my preferred candidate).

Of course, I have an opinion and a political agenda too. I don’t go out of my way to hide my views.

I’m left-leaning. I support gay and trans rights. I believe in social housing, density, and public transit. I support women’s right to choose. To choose an abortion, to choose to leave a relationship or marriage, to choose to try for children or get married at all.

I support a free Palestine and freed hostages. I support a free Ukraine and a Russia-free congress. I support a democratic election process where the people who reside within a nation truly have the power to choose their leadership.

Many people disagree with me. Especially on the finer points. These differences are what make our country work. Disagreement is how politics happens. I don’t believe in division and polarization for its own sake, but obstacles drive innovation.

That’s why you must vote (for your own interests). Maybe you completely agree with me! Maybe you mostly agree with me. Maybe you hate every opinion I stated. Maybe you’re somewhere in the infinity gray area in between. It doesn’t matter what your opinion is if you don’t put it on the ballot.

Plenty don’t think their vote matters. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty, it technically doesn’t. The state electors in the Electoral College don’t have to pick the majority candidate; however, this happening is so rare it’s silly to use it as a meaningful excuse.

To that end, your vote does matter. Political pundits love to discuss “safe states” and “swing states,” but all it takes is a concerted effort to turn a once thought “safe state” into a “swing state,” and vice versa.

Texas is the closest it has been in decades to voting Democrat. Wisconsin and Arizona successfully flipped in 2016. Now is the time to get involved with national politics, especially if you don’t vote like your state typically does.

This is even more important on a local level. Your vote matters even more.

Just two years ago in nearby Gurnee, Illinois, Warren Township High School and the city published a referendum raising taxes slightly to continue to fund their extracurricular programs. The referendum failed by close to 100 votes. Gurnee has a population of over 30,000.

Every vote in that referendum mattered. Not all 30,000 Gurnee residents voted in that referendum. So few that the city attempted the referendum again. After an independent community group’s promotion and the school announcing it would be canceling all non-varsity sports and after-school clubs, the second referendum passed, saving Warren High School’s programming.

That referendum is why it is so important to be politically active in your local community. Especially if you disagree with the local politics, even if you do agree, but wish to see things improved.

Nothing will change if nobody acts. Nobody will act in your interest if you don’t tell them to.