Yes, it’s true, I didn’t vote in the November elections this year, but I’m totally 100 percent ok with my decision not to and I’ll tell you why, but before I do, let me go back to the last time I voted, which was back in 2016, during that very heated Presidential election.
By the time that election rolled around, I was exhausted from all the fighting and arguing between friends and loved ones about who should be in office. I was tired of all the debates going on no matter where I placed my attention in any given moment. I couldn’t escape it in social media, or in the news, or in day-to-day conversations. Everyone seemed to have become so darn polarized.
Republican versus Democrat. Left versus Right. Labels were thrown. Judgments were placed. Tempers and anger flared. And I so desperately wanted it all to end. Sadly, when that election was finally over and our new President came into office, it didn’t end and the polarization only grew worse. One side became extremely angry that the popular vote once again didn’t matter, bringing back discussion around when Al Gore lost. They said the voting system was rigged from the beginning. While the other side simply gloated and threw pop-shots at the opposing side’s demise.
Frankly, I didn’t care either way who made it into office back then, as I have never felt the work that’s needed to make our country a better place is done at that level. Rather, I’ve always believed that it’s up to all of us to simply becoming more unconditionally loving and accepting of each other, as the more of us who do, the more we will see our country move in a much healthier and brighter direction, one filled with greater Light.
Nevertheless, zoom forward two years and people are still spending more time arguing about how messed up our political climate is here in the United States. Each side continuing to blame the other and pointing the finger. Every television show I watched was flooded with smear campaigns during the commercial breaks for the past few weeks and all I knew after seeing it constantly thrown in my face, was that I was sick and tired of it and knew nothing about any of the candidates, except for the judgments people were making of them, which is precisely when I made the decision not to vote in this election.
Because ultimately, when it comes right down to it, beyond the fact that many of the promises that are often made by candidates who make it into office (or remain there), never come to fruition, my life still goes on, regardless of whether I vote or not. I still am going to walk the same spiritual path I have been, regardless of whether I vote or not. And I’m still going to do my best to keep being an unconditionally loving, caring, kind, and accepting person of everyone as I can, regardless of whether I vote or not.
I’m not a Democrat. I’m not a Republican. I’m not anything political and I don’t ever want to be. Because in all honesty, I don’t like how people have become with each other in the political arena these days, nor do I like how people all seem to be treating each other now, especially when they find out their political views and supported candidates are different from those they’re communicating with.
That’s why I truly don’t care who one votes for, or supports, or what party one is from, or what platform one believes in, or any of one’s political views anymore, because what I truly care about when it comes to everyone else is simply doing my best to love them all as Christ would, which was unconditional and had nothing to do with voting, or being Republican, or Democratic, or any other political thing for that matter.
Some might say I’m being un-American by not voting, but I say I’m walking my own spiritual path just like Christ and His disciples once did, and I’m totally 100 percent ok with that, because in the end, I think it’s how we love each other that really matters and not what political stance one takes…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
