When I was a child, one of the movies that seemed to run fairly regularly on TV was Brewster’s Millions, a story about a man (Monty Brewster) who inherits $300 million, but only if he spends $30 million by the end of 30 days. In the story, Brewster spends his money in many creative ways, desperately trying to shed 30 million dollars. One of these methods is running for the office of New York City Mayor. He has no intention of becoming the mayor, so he rallies votes for “None of the Above”.

“None of the Above” always struck me as hilarious as a kid. A situation so bad that a vote for nobody was better than any of the other available options. What a comically tragic state of affairs that would be!

The current presidential election at the time of this writing is between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump. I don’t like much like politics, and you won’t likely hear me express anything remotely resembling an endorsement for a political party or candidate. But I do have some thoughts on the current election and an explanation of my general voting practices. These can be loosely and crudely summarized as “vote for None of the Above”, but I don’t think it’s fair to leave it at that.

Why vote?

You’re a registered voter (presumably), you aren’t a felon (statistically speaking), why not vote? I’d like to go on record now by saying that voting is a wonderful freedom that American citizens have, and it shouldn’t be neglected. Everyone should make a habit of practicing educated voting on local issues first and foremost. Read your Voter’s Guide. Research the effects of new laws and propositions. Attend City Council meetings. Care who your School Board members and Sheriff are. In these smaller elections, your vote has a 1 to 1 result. You can even influence your local government with phone calls and emails.

My enthusiasm wanes when discussion turns to presidents and national-scale politicians however.

Why “not vote”?

I’ve heard it said that “if you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain”. The thing is, voting is my legal right and so is freedom of speech. So, technically I do have the right to not vote and then complain about the outcome of an election.

But I don’t feel a need to justify myself technically. I would rather, for the sake of discussion, justify myself philosophically. Being that I am very much a citizen of the United States of America, and grateful for that fact, I respect the constitution and our political process…in theory. The framers of the constitution had much foresight and sought to protect the country from evil leaders rising up inside the government. But just as with tax laws, clever men and women in government found loopholes; stretched truths; called in favors; and shirked responsibilities to their own gain.

This truth seems more evident every year. Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange reveal the corruption that we always feared, the stuff of fiction thrillers, was present in our government. And if we can trust any part of these men’s findings, it’s that we can’t trust anyone in government.

Clinton, a career politician with a history of deception. Trump, a career businessman with a history of misogyny and arrogance. These are the two greats that we’ve been left with. Personally, I consider that to be a failure. We’ve somehow refined everything down to these two, and now we “have” to choose between them.

But actually, no. You don’t have to vote for one of these candidates, and I don’t mean voting for a third party. “The lesser of two evils” is a false dilemma. I’ve seen people of great conviction bow down to the notion that they must choose one of these candidates. The lesser of two evils is still evil. Please don’t read this as a condemnation of the souls of these people. I’m just carrying the idiom out to its logical conclusion. God ultimately judges the hearts of these people.

If you can honestly say, I want *candidate name* to be president, then cast your ballot

The best option may be, for the sake of your conscience, to vote “none of the above”. Or you can opt to “not vote” for the office of the presidency. You actually have the choice to “not vote” in any category on the ballot. Just because you have a right doesn’t mean you have to use it. A vote cast for a “lesser evil” is a slippery slope. Don’t set your conscience up to be deteriorated. Cast your vote with purpose and conviction, or don’t cast it at all.