My voting behavior has been influenced by my parents’ practicality: Make sure that your candidate has a chance before casting a vote. In Germany, where I voted first, this meant making sure that the Green candidates had a chance to get over the 5% hurdle. If not, the vote would be a throw-away vote and, worse, support the conservative candidate. So, I’d grudgingly vote for a Social-Democrat. But I thought it was better to have a less than perfect person in power than to throw my vote away.

That’s why I cannot understand those people on the left who don’t want to vote for the Democrats because Obama (and before him Kerry, and before him Gore, etc) isn’t a perfect candidate. I don’t like his peddling to the religious wrong either, for starters. There are some policies that make me cringe. But he is a whole heck of a lot better than McCain/Palin. Do you seriously think that you’re sending any kind of message to Obama/Biden if you’re not voting? No. McCain/Palin will secretly thank you for your moral high ground and then go right on destroying the world without a second thought to you. No, I am not trying to scare people into voting. I am trying to point out that deciding not to vote to make a point is self-defeating because it will end up not making any point since the votes simply get lost.

There are also historical reasons, why voting makes a lot of sense to me, especially as a woman. Though it would be a logical fallacy to ask women to vote simply because our sisters have suffered so much to fight for our right to vote, I think that they would be saddened that we see this right so lightly that we feel we can choose not to vote simply because we want to make a point. Again, that point will get lost!

We also need to reform the political system so that smaller parties have a chance. Ultimately, I think, that would help us make a difference. After all, in Germany, the Greens did end up in the federal government.

If you want to make your dissent heard, write a letter to the editor, demonstrate, sign a petition, but for crying out loud please vote!