If you’re a citizen of the United States and registered to vote, please head out to your polling place tomorrow. To paraphrase and quote a little from the late David Foster Wallace’s superb essay (originally published by Rolling Stone in 2000) “The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys And The Shrub”, don’t kid yourself into thinking there’s such a thing as not voting.
There is no such thing as not voting:
You either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard [partisan’s] vote.
So cast your own vote, not somebody else’s.
Updated, Nov. 4: I just voted, and I hope however this turns out that, unlike the way campaigns and partisans on all sides typically conduct themselves, people will take a lesson from John Wayne. Yeah, that John Wayne. I doubt I’ll ever have the occasion to quote him again, but he said just the right thing after the 1960 presidential election. He supported Nixon but said this about Kennedy:
I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.
There’s a lot that needs doing, and fixing, in this country. So while I hope the candidate I voted for wins, whoever it is, he will be my president and I hope he does a good job.
