Reason to Vote

This morning I read an article on CNN entitled “Candidates, give us a reason to vote in 2012”.  Titles like this infuriate me.  Why should there be a reason to vote in an election other than people died for the right to vote and you are going to do it because it’s the right thing to do?

it's even harder to imagine that the more than three-fourths of Republicans who were thoroughly uninspired by him just a few months earlier would suddenly get excited enough to turn out and vote.

This is exactly what is wrong about American politics today.  We have to be inspired to vote.  We have to be enamored by the candidate to want to take 5 minutes out of our day and swing by the voting booth to cast our vote for a person on Election Day.  All I have to say about that is nasty words.  What’s wrong with voting because it is our right to vote and be a part of a system that allows us to have a voice?  What’s wrong with voting because our ancestors fought and died for the right to vote?  What’s wrong with voting because it’s the thing to do as a citizen?  Why do we have to be fueled with excitement to wnat to do this? 

The Election Board as bent over backwards to have people at the polling place and have it open for 14 hours so it’s convenient for us to vote.  The least we can do is perform our civic duty regardless of the fact the people on the ballot make us yawn or jump up and down.  It isn’t American Idol, folks, it’s the future of the our country which looks pretty bleak at the present.