1. Your vote really doesn’t matter.

Your vote is statistically insignificant. In a presidential election, your vote has a 1 in 60 million chance of making a difference in the winner. Congressional and state elections it’s slightly higher but still insignificant.

Not only does your vote not matter, but it also doesn’t matter who wins. A study by Professors Martin Gilens (Princeton University) and Benjamin I. Page (Northwestern University) looked at more than 20 years’ worth of data to find that bills have about a 30% chance of becoming laws regardless of what public opinion on them is. Elected officials have no accountability to the people that they are supposed to represent. Instead, lobbyists make more of a difference. Organizations that can afford to lobby will have the most sway over which laws are passed. Lobbyists even write most of the bills that are introduced. While studies show that politicians do keep some of their campaign promises, the promises voters most care about are the ones they’re most likely to break. The system only provides an illusion of control.

There are many things you can do instead of voting that would actually make a difference. Hug your kids, donate time or money to charity, meet up with a friend. All of these options will make a bigger impact on the world than your vote.

2. You’re propping up a system that you hate.

How much of your time do you spend complaining about government actions or politicians? Do you cringe when you see political ads? Do you feel like the country is full of unjust laws that oppress people or even make your own life harder every day? We’ve established that your vote doesn’t matter, yet you will be inundated on a daily basis with ads telling you how important it is for you to vote, even that it’s the most important thing you can do. This is because regardless of who or what you vote for, your participation in the system is what validates its existence. 

Politics is very dramatic. Every day on the news we are offered new things to be outraged about. This is because the most important thing is keeping people engaged. People manipulated by fear to do whatever it takes to stop “the other side” from winning are people who are easy to control. 

Government is actually a myth. No one really has special powers or privileges to control you, take your money, or murder you with no consequences. Voting is a measurement of how many people have bought into the myth and are willing to play along. The number of regular people in this country vastly outnumber the political ruling class. If only 2% of the population voted because no one bought into the myth and no one cared about popularity contests between sociopaths, the system would peacefully cease to exist in any meaningful way. Yes, someone will be elected president, but if the word president holds no authority in the minds of most of the country it really doesn’t matter.

As the late George Carlin put it:

On Election Day, I stay home. I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They say, ‘If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain,’ but where’s the logic in that?

If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain.

I, on the other hand, who did not vote — who did not even leave the house on Election Day — am in no way responsible for what these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created.

3. Jesus rejected political power.

The Bad Roman project was created out of the desire to show Christians how they were allowing the message of Christ to be corrupted by their desire for political power. Having political power and influence is the antithesis of everything Jesus taught.

When Jesus began his ministry, the Messiah had long been awaited. It was a firm belief that the messiah, much like King David, would be a warrior who would drive out the nations that had been occupying Israel and restore it to its former glory. Jesus did not however come as a political leader or warrior but came to lead the revolution of the human heart. John the Baptist who had been announcing Jesus’ coming was unsure, asking, "are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Matthew 11:3). Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem as the messiah with shouts of “Hosanna” only to be executed a week later. Even his own disciples abandoned him when instead of overthrowing the Roman government, he was crucified by it. 

Jesus was of course not powerless but chose to exercise his power by serving people, relating to them one on one, loving them, sharing meals with them in their homes, and healing and defending the most vulnerable. 

The one subject Jesus talked most about was the Kingdom of God and how it was accessible to us right here and now. In very stark contrast to the kingdoms and governments of this world, the Kingdom of God does not hold power over others forcing them to do what is right. Rather it empowers others causing their own hearts to voluntarily turn to what is right.

Before Jesus began his ministry, he spent 40 days fasting in the desert where Satan tempted him. One of the things Satan tempted him with was political power. It can be easy to overlook that this was a real temptation. I imagine Satan painting Jesus a rosy picture of how he could end all wars and slavery and ensure everyone had state-provided healthcare. It is as much of a temptation now as it was then. We have to actively, as Jesus did, choose the Kingdom of God over the ways of the kingdoms of this world.

4. The people who get positions of power are always the worst possible choice.

I have never in my life met a person who didn’t agree with the statement, “all politicians are liars.” I have also never lived through an election cycle where I didn’t hear the phrase “lesser of two evils.” To be a successful politician, you truly have to sell your soul for the sake of gaining power. Every election we are given the choice of the most soulless power-hungry people on earth. If there is a person running who has any shred of integrity, you can be sure the system will weed them out. No decent, honest person has the desire to violently rule over his fellow man. We all know this. If at this point, you still are convinced you have to vote, I would at least encourage you to abandon the mentality of “well, I don’t like the guy, but we sure can’t let the other team win” and at the very least vote for someone you actually believe in.

5. All political power is illegitimate. You own yourself.

There are two important things to understand regarding this point. The first is that you own yourself. Really let that soak in until you believe it. You are a sovereign individual. No one has the right to rule over you. No one has the right to hurt you. No one has the right to steal a percentage of your income or extort money from you because you own a car or property. Your consent matters and any attempt to hurt or take you or your property are wrong and violations of your God-given rights as a human being.

The second idea is like the first. Everyone else owns themselves. You may have lots of opinions about how other people should live their lives. You may even believe these opinions are for their own good. No matter how good your opinions are and how bad someone else’s is, they still own themselves and you have no right to hurt them or take their things. Suppose I know a woman who is a prostitute. I may believe her choices are very harmful and she has so much more value as a human than what she is submitting herself to. Yet, I have no right to force her to do anything, Regardless of how much I disagree, it remains immoral and a violation of her rights for me to kidnap her and lock her in a cage in my basement. You may say to yourself, “well of course I wouldn’t lock anyone in a cage that’s a ridiculous example.” Yet, the United States has the highest prison population per capita in the entire world, because, as a country, we have determined it’s very much acceptable to lock people in cages for almost any reason. If you can recognize that you yourself don’t possess the right to lock your neighbor in a cage, steal from them, or shoot them; there is no magic that happens to allow you to delegate this right that you don’t have to another person who may call themselves the police, or the government, or the state.

So this election season, embrace your self-ownership by taking all the time, energy, and money you might have spent on politics and instead do something that actually matters. You truly do have the power to make the world a better place.