Without Action or Knowledge: The American Non-Voter | Teen Ink

Without Action or Knowledge: The American Non-Voter

January 22, 2015
By FadedPolaroid BRONZE, St. Louis, Missouri
FadedPolaroid BRONZE, St. Louis, Missouri
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

I am an American citizen who has every right to vote but chooses not to because I think I am morally superior to it.
I complain about the state of the nation but haven’t voted since the year Bush, Jr. was elected the first time.
I hate Congress but I refuse to vote because I don’t understand that change isn’t made through non-action and that I’m really just pouring fuel on to the fire.
I am proud to contribute to Washington gridlock by abandoning my duty as an American citizen.
I love to talk about current issues even though I gathered all my information third-hand and have no idea what I’m really talking about.
I have no concern for the people who fought and died for the right to vote.
I love to think of myself as an interesting intellectual when really I’m just a pompous man with a superiority complex who swims in a sea of willful ignorance.
I can not name my representative in the House or either of my members of the Senate.
I have no idea about those who continue to be restricted from their constitutional right to vote because I didn’t hear the Supreme Court struck down a key component of the Voting Rights Act.
I like to think of myself of living an independent lifestyle and love show it through the lack of attention I pay to current events because of my distrust of all forms of news media.

I believe myself to be a man--who despite having the privilege of being white, straight, male, and cisgendered-- cares about equality when I support oppressors and speak in vaguely derogatory terms about the oppressed.
I muse about moving to a foreign country because of my opposition to an American policy that had already been implemented in a far more progressive form there decades ago.
I cannot name more than two of the amendments in the Bill of Rights, the first two to be exact.
I abandon my duty as a citizen out my own arrogant self-interests and ignorance to how government functions, but you should definitely hire me.
 


The author's comments:

This piece I wrote is a statement about people who think they are intelligent and superior and choose not to vote because they feel that the system has failed them and that they are too good for it when really they are too impatient and absent minded to be informed about what’s going on in Washington and how government works. At the very end I make a statement about how many people find this to be acceptable behavior and really don’t consider that when they try to hire or just have a relationship with someone when really I feel this should be an important factor for people to consider that speaks volumes about a person in a very subtle way. I wrote this also to make a statement about people who act like they know what they are talking about when having intellectual conversations but really don’t and have gotten their information about many subjects from unreliable sources. I wrote this in Juvenalian style of satire.


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