Vote!

10 Minutes from Alyssa Milano

"Do you know how motivated stupid people are?" So I guess being apathetic is smart? Heh, heh. I don't think that was Aziz Ansari's intention.

Pretty much all excuses for not voting boil down to laziness. You don't want to take ten minutes - if that - out of your day, so you invent an excuse for not doing the right thing.

Oh, my vote won't make any difference. So what? It's your duty to vote. You can't control what other people do, but you can control what you do. So vote. Besides, if you don't vote, you have no right whatsoever to complain about anything. Indeed, we who vote will have every right to complain about you.

After all, it was you who gave us the Iraq War and the current economic collapse. It was you who deregulated the banks and gave us record-breaking deficits. It was you who decided Citizens United and it was you who let money corrupt our political system. Voters may have made some wrong choices, but no one's perfect. It's the non-voter who's really at fault.

Oh, what's the use? Both parties are exactly alike. Yeah, right. That's why they so vehemently disagree. If Al Gore had been elected president in 2000, instead of George W. Bush, tens of thousands of innocent people in Iraq would still be alive. That's just one consequence out of millions. In a democracy, our decisions matter.

And if you don't like a political party, you can change it. After all, the Democratic Party used to be the party of slavery and segregation, solidly entrenched among southern white racists. Democrats changed that. They rose above their former base, most notably by passing the 1964 Civil Rights Act, knowing that it would cost them the South.

Oh, ordinary people can't change anything. No politician and no political party is going to be perfect, but if you think you can wave a magic wand and instantly fix everything,... well, grow up! Change is hard. However, the religious right has recently demonstrated how hard work and persistent voting can wrest control over an entire political party. Do you think they're the only people in America who can do this? I happen to think that they're completely wrong about nearly everything, but at least they're willing to work for what they believe.

Oh, I don't like politics. Again, so what? Voting is your duty as an American citizen. You don't have to like it. You just have to do your part. And you know something? Politics might be a terrible way to make decisions, but the alternative is violence. You may not "like" politics, but you'd better hope you never have to suffer the alternative. Compared to that, politics might be the most wonderful invention of all time.

Oh, I don't know enough about the candidates and the issues. This was my excuse when I was young. But it's fallacious. What I discovered is that you won't ever know enough until you start voting. You're likely to feel like a complete idiot in the voting booth at first, not knowing how to vote in many races. So if you don't have a clue, leave those parts of the ballot blank. Vote for what you do know and vow to do better next time. But at least show up and act like a responsible adult.

Oh, I'm too busy. No, you're not. Trust me. Voting is very easy and takes no time at all. And people make the time for things they consider important. Once you realize that voting - in every election, no matter how minor - is important, you'll make the time. No one will ever pay attention to you and your peers unless you reliably vote. Look at how much attention senior citizens get. That's because they vote.

All of these are feeble excuses for laziness. You want the privileges of democracy, without having to get off the couch. You want to be free to do what you want, without doing the maintenance required to keep those freedoms. Sure, you're busy with your own life. Aren't we all? But you have a duty, a duty shared with every other citizen, to do this small part - ten minutes of very easy effort every so often - to keep our society peaceful and healthy.

If that's too much to ask, you don't deserve to live here. Maybe you'd prefer Somalia.