Poop Shute

Power

Recently it was brought to my attention that certain members of my inner circle have made the conscious decision to abstain from voting.

As this is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard, I say for shame.

Keep in mind as you read this that I speak from my own miserable experience. In 2000 I was twenty years old and had been able to vote for two years. Had I voted once in those two years? Nope. Did I intend to start then? Nope.

I try to live by a no regret policy, but I have to admit I do have a few. One is not allowing myself to be more of a hedonist in college while it was still considered acceptable behavior, two is not buying more absinthe while I was in London, and three is not voting in the 2000 presidential election.

For four years now I've had to sit and watch this man's legacy unfold around us all and for four years I've stewed over my political impotence. Had I voted and he still won, so be it. I still would have done everything in my power to stop it.

Which brings me to the biggest point here. In America we live in a consumer-driven economy and a democratic republic. In such a society we, as the average consumer-citizens, have two main forms of power allotted to us on a regular basis. One is the vote and the other is our money.

By judiciously deciding where your money is spent it can be almost like a form of voting. I mean when a business sees that it's not making money in a certain area it's options are change or die. For example I plan on making a return to vegetarianism after reading what I've read about the meat industry and the unethical practices it employs. It obviously won't cripple them, but I will not be supporting them either.

Now, I would argue that the dollar is actually a more potent voice, but most of us don't really use that voice to express our convictions either. Simple things like boycotting companies that use child-labor or buying more fresh foods and less processed crap. Hell, walk out of a movie you don't like the first fifteen minutes of and demand your money back.

I digress.

Power is power. And if you are handed power that you lay aside, you are a fool.

And I will be taking a very O'Reilly stance with non-voters who plan on saying word one about politics for the next four years.

"Cut his mike."