Trump v. Hillary

[Zach Caldwell]

I am sure that caught your attention. This is not a thread about who you support. Both have those who support them and those who do not and then you have those who do not want to vote for either.

Voting in the United States is considered a civic duty. So let's assume that is true. To exercise that civic duty we must vote for a candidate, even if we do not like our options. 

So if someone decides they cannot vote for either candidate, are they abdicating their civic duty? Is it worse to not vote than to vote for the lesser of two evils? For good or bad the United States has a two party system.

[GayActivist]

I was raised that voting was my civic responsibility. I was taught to look at all candidates and issues from both sides as much as I possibly could and try to decide who was the best person to govern the country. Sometimes you might be faced with not liking either candidate but you have to make the best choice you can. I would never not vote.

To me, to not vote, means that I then do not have a right to complain about what comes after that decision. I have on occasion happened upon those who have not voted and they raise bloody hell about things not going right. That frankly, pisses me off. It also means I give that person less credibility to whatever the have to say about government, politician, or policy. Doing the right thing is not always an easy thing to do. This election cycle, I think is very important and I hope everyone gets out and votes.

[Al Norris]

This election cycle is more important than ever.

Regardless of who you see as the better pick to lead our country, the one thing that should galvanize you is who that candidate will select to sit on the Supreme Court. We currently have a Court that is evenly split between two opposing ideologies. This will not last.

My sense of civic responsibility and duty compels me to select that candidate which will select a Justice that will be true to our Constitution as it was understood to mean at the time it was voted into existence.

[D'Artagnon]

We have had difficult choices as a country before.  We've faced these, as each citizen must, weighing the decisions in the quiet of our minds, the crucible of our hearts.  To not vote is still a choice, and often the subject of a different sort of morality.  Is not voting a moral choice based on rejecting both or all candidates?  Or does not voting mark some as not having the courage to find a path based on the choices available, no matter how things do not align perfectly with our own concepts?

Like many, I was raised in a politically divided house.  My father was a firm Republican who believed that things needed to be steady, that leading from a position of strength and advantage on the global stage was how to maintain our country's dominance in a world still adjusting from the many changes of World War II.  My mother was very much a liberal Democrat who embraced the ideals of social justice, equality, helping those who need help and protecting those without a voice.  Both were strong in their catholic faith, which gave them both a strong sense of family, compassion for their fellows, and community.  Traits that they passed on to me, although I have left the church, for different reasons.

Part of that sense of duty, to country and family was something that drew me into Boy Scouts as a kid.  I learned a lot from my time there.  Oh sure, a lot of it was camping, skills of the outdoors, character traits like bravery, self-reliance, community service, things of that nature.  But I also learned a lot about civic responsibility, how the things we do as individuals make up how the community works, how the world looks at us all.

So, while the choices may not be great this time around, a debate for another forum, perhaps, it is my intention to first find the quiet of my mind, the deep courage of my soul, and the hard, flaming hot-blooded forge of my own beating American heart, weigh the choices honestly, without the partisan hype and put the choices to my own test.  I will look at the issues from as many sides as I can, without falling for the rhetoric of the political parties.  I will make my choice based on the discernment of my own conscience, as all good, proper, free-thinking citizens must.

And when the time comes, I will vote.  To not vote, without it being declared as some statement of abstention, either is an act of laziness, or cowardice.  And one thing that the military my father served in, the church organizations of mercy my mother worked with, and the Boy Scouts I was once part of all have in common is that country, community, bravery, and service must be the civic duty of all.  And that when cowards or those without conscience prosper, we all suffer.

I will vote.  I am not completely sure which way I lean.  I will not push anyone else to vote for whomever I do, since I know that I cannot change the minds of voters by my arguments alone.  But I will urge all of you to actually put your convictions where your mouths are and vote.  Brave men and women died to give you that sacred duty.  Don't dishonor them by choosing to sit this one out.

Tough choices are not a part of life; they are life.  Keep that in mind. 

Also keep this in mind.  I hear a lot of people, many very intelligent and impassioned people, who say they will obstruct any candidate that isn't theirs.  They sometimes say they'll leave America if they can't have their way or if their party doesn't win.  No matter the outcome of the election, no matter if my candidate wins or the other candidate wins, I will act as an American and root the winner on.  I may not like their policies, but I want our country to win.  And this lack of action on political stubbornness, from both sides, must stop.  We must move forward, we must take action on the challenges that face us, because to do nothing is to stagnate and die.  One of my favorite American founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, said "we must hang together  or we shall surely hang separately."

Thus, with great gravitas, I move you to vote.  It is the brave, wise, civic and responsible thing to do.  And after the election, let's get to work.  We all have much to do.

[Zergrinch]

Now that America has a new Republican president, and the Republicans won a majority in both houses, a majority which will soon extend to the Supreme Court... I'm sure I join the rest of the world wondering... What now? What have you done??!