Why I will not vote in the presidential election

I have a small Quora space called Donkeys and Elephants, located at https://qr.ae/pKgJfP. My tagline is “Let’s express our political views and reason together.” When I began, I thought I would monitor the space as the administrator and encourage intelligent conversations about American politics.

I have 272 contributors, 2 subscribers (Quora’s last big money-making program for space administrators was set up so people would subscribe to your space), and 2.4K followers. The space averages 30 posts a day. This space has had over one million views in the two years I have maintained it. I have earned $27.23 as of 12/6/2023. Yeah, it’s a real money-maker for me! LOL.

I rarely answer questions posed in my political space. The majority of posts consist of cartoonish digs against Trump, Biden, and other named Democrats, Republicans, Senators, and Congress. My original intention of keeping the space unbiased has been a dismal failure. It is leaning towards the Democratic view.

There are very few intellectual conversations. I realize I should never have expected this. Quora is a platform with unrestricted access, and hundreds of thousands of individuals use it. They represent diverse ages, global backgrounds, and nationalities; they represent a wide range of intelligence levels, educational backgrounds, and life experiences.

As the administrator, I monitor flagged questions or answers for inclusion or deletion. They flagged most for hate speech or harassment and bullying. When someone reports a contribution as either of these, I always remove the post. When some algorithm on Quora picks out a contribution and no cause is listed, I usually leave it. By the way, I try not to approve questions or answers that make unfounded pedophilic accusations. That’s just something that bothers me.

Are people really this stupid? This is not a rhetorical question, nor is it sarcastic.

I am honestly amazed at the mass stupidity of the contributors to this space. I sincerely hope that it is a quality of the specific people who take the time to contribute. Hopefully, the majority of “smart” Americans are busy doing more intellectual activities than posting questions and answers on Quora about politics that verge on the unprintable.

I have read about political parties and their leadership being insulted in offensive terms, persecuted, reviled, belittled, and berated. The backbiting is unbelievable. I have not taken time to tally which party is more hated, but it appears to my untrained eye that the Trump haters are in the majority. They may be more vocal.

The straw that broke this camel’s back was the January 6th insurrection (as I call it), or the attack on the capital. I watched this on live television as then-President Trump stood by and allowed this to escalate beyond control. Before his inability to accept defeat, I had been a Trump supporter.

It’s enough to make anyone disheartened and disillusioned with our political system. No wonder so many people feel their vote will not make any difference. There is a plethora of perceived corruption and the belief that someone has rigged the system. One would think that with all of our modern technology, voting would be safe, secure, and speedy.

The way the American voting system works for presidential elections gives many people the feeling that their vote has little impact on the election. They have shown many states to have predictable voting patterns, which leads potential voters to feel a sense of futility.

By debating and arguing among themselves, our elected representatives, not only at the national level but at state and local levels as well, hinder their ability to effectively carry out their duties.

I have become apathetic about the voting process. Someone told me, “If you do not vote, you have no right to complain.”

Okay. I won’t complain about our leadership. However, I can complain about the general populace’s perceptions of our leadership, and it doesn’t look good from where I sit.

No candidate stands out (to me) as making a great president, not even a good one. The debates appear as auditions for the best television personality, turning the United States president into a puppet with handlers pulling their strings.

If they are unimpressed with the potential candidates, dissatisfied voters may choose to abstain from voting. There seems to be a lack of candidates who align with their values or address their concerns.

These factors have led to my decision to abstain from voting in the American 2024 presidential election. I have chosen not to participate in the electoral process. I am not encouraging anyone else to do this. Actually, my hope is that voter turnout is better than ever, but I have heard rumors that many voters are choosing to abstain from voting. I have not read about their reasoning, but I would be open to hearing from both sides, pro and con.

Perhaps there is a more effective means of bringing about change compared to participating in the electoral process. Some processes that come to mind are activism, community organizing, or direct advocacy.

I encourage you to leave your comments on this article.

Thanks for reading.