In a recent foreign policy class, I was asked "who did YOU vote for?" during a heated political debate. As I began to give my answer, I realized that anything else in my argument would be considered illegitimate if I responded with "In protest of a corrupt system, I did not vote." Often people remark that if you didn't vote, you do not have the right to complain about anything. Voting is seen as not just a way, but *THE* way to make your voice heard. In other words, to make our voices heard, we need to step into a booth once every four years, and decide who will make decisions for us in government.

As Americans, we like to think of our country as the cornerstone of democracy. The lone "superpower," we perceive ourselves as the beacon of freedom and justice to the world - an archetype to spread across the globe. By adopting this perception, we have internalised the notion that our system of government is the only correct and true way for a free society to operate. Not only have we rejected any other style of government - we have also rejected any other interpretation of what a "democracy" or free society is.

Often, non voters are accused of apathy, laziness, and lack of concern for the world around them. This couldn't be further from the truth. More often than not, those who choose not to vote are angry, frustrated, disenfranchised, and demand more than to decide who gets to have authority over them. It isn't just the corruption of politicians, the fiasco's that were the last two elections, or the fact that our choices in candidates are limited. It is the idea that we are not good enough to make decisions for ourselves.

During my grade school and high school years, much of what I learned about politics centered around voting. The right to vote is what what women spent a century demanding, what civil libertarians fought in the streets for, and what our soldiers bled and died for. I learned that there were two types of democracy - direct and representative. Direct democracy didn't exist anymore according to my teachers - there were simply too many people for it. I learned that decisions about my life were made by men far away. I got to choose who they were, but never the decisions they made.

Something sounded a bit strage to me, and as I continued to learn about our representative democratic process, I was told that anyone could be involved in government. We could all run for president and for congress, provided we met the required age and citizenship restrictions. However, the difference between running for office and actually obtaining that office never really came up.

The difference is money and lies. Financing a presidential campaign can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Financing a campaign for the Senate or House can even cost in the millions of dollars. The average citizen does not have this kind of cash.

Worse yet is the lying. We live in a paradox of sorts when it comes to our "leaders." Many Americans will be the first to say "you can't trust politicians." We know they lie, we know they exaggerate and make promises in order to get our votes - yet many still show up at the polls year after year, pledging their support for this system. Are we in a state of denial? If it isn't "I didn't inhale" it's "No New Taxes" or "I am not a crook." We've completely internalised corrupt politicians in our national psyche.

Let's recap. In order to obtain office, a candidate has to have millions of dollars in funding, and be willing to lie to his or her supporters. To be elected, voters have to select which of that ilk they would prefer to go to Washington and make laws and decisions that shape their lives. Does this sound like a fair system? Is it any wonder that the average citizen would become disaffected by this system?

Simply reforming the current system of elections is not enough. Simply hoping for better candidates or politicians is not enough. In order to make a fundamental change in our society we need to change the way we do things fundamentally. This means more than just calling our representatives and harassing them, voting for all new types of people, and solutions of that nature. This means that we need to reconsider what we're voting for.

It's hard to believe that people have fought, bled, and died for the idea that freedom means to select a small group (1 vote per person for president, 2 senators, and a few house members) to run our lives. Can we honestly believe that the ideas behind civil rights, equality for all peoples, and grand social changes stem from a ballot box? Examining even some of the smallest portions of American history will prove to the contrary. By believing that voting is our voice, we're cheating ourselves. Every vote cast is another vote for a corrupt system. When we step into the booth, we step out of an active role in our lives, and enter a passive one.

To begin radical change in the way we govern our lives, we must first rid ourselves of the notion that the only way to make our voice heard is in the ballot box. It doesn't mean that we all have to stop voting right away, just that we need to begin to explore more meaningful ways of creating change. To sit at a table and register young people to vote isn't going to help fix a broken system. It would be better to sit at a table and pass out literature, to engage in healthy debate, and to learn from each other.

If we really hope to have a future free of corrupt politicians, corporate scandals and greed, unabashed military spending, dangerous losses of civil liberties, and more - we need to step out of the booth and back into an active role in our lives. We need to educate and organize each other - in the hopes of peacefully and meaningfully changing our lives to something we have yet to realize, a world where we are actively and directly making decisions in our lives.