I see on my timeline a lot of people who will say they will "vote blue no matter who" or that they "could never vote for a Democrat." I'll be the first to say that I even agreed with this mindset at first. (For the sake of this article, I'm just talking about presidential elections.) In my case, I was on the “vote blue no matter who" side, but I think the only reason I agreed with that phrase was that at the time, I had already decided that this time around, I was going to be voting for the Democrat party. The more I learned about the candidates and the more thought I gave did make me realize more, though. I would rather vote for someone who I believe can lead our country and who has morals aligning with what I believe in, rather than a person based simply on what party they are apart of.

Let us take a moment and look all the way back to our first president, Mr. George Washington.

In his farewell address, he said that it was only natural for people to group themselves based on belief, but to be careful because political parties should be recognized as the enemy. And think, how often to you hear people at each other's throats just because they're apart of different political parties? All. The. Time. The problem is, we've started to place more value on labels, rather than a person's morality or what they stand for. I've had people immediately shut down political conversations with me from the get-go just because I'm not apart of their party. And that was before they even decided to get to know who I am.

You can't just vote for someone because of their party. You can't vote for someone you dislike just because “at least they aren't a Republican." If there were no political parties, I think we can all agree that we would vote for whoever we actually liked and agree with more. So why isn't it the same when we do have them? Don't throw away a chance to make this country better because of your pride. Voting isn't child's play. Your vote does count, so use it wisely.

By the way, why does it matter? Why does it matter what political party a candidate is apart of? A genuine reason?

It really doesn't matter, if you look past the surface. Just because Democrats tend to be liberal and Republicans tend to be conservative, doesn't mean they are all carbon copies of one another. If you ever think about why there are so many political parties, you may realize that they were created because others weren't cutting it. Other parties didn't align with their views and what they want for our country. As humans, we are all so very unique. There is no possible way we can all see the world the same. We can't be divided into such small and opposite groups. No presidential candidate is going to be 100% conservative or 100% liberal. There's a reason we call it a “political spectrum" and it's because we're all different.

Thankfully, many of us will vote for who we really want. If you think about it, no one will ever really know who you vote for (unless you tell them). Voting is private and you don't need to get worked up when confronted on who you voted for. You aren't required to give anyone that information. You could hype the “Trump Train" all day long but go vote for Jo Jorgensen or Joe Biden and the world would be none the wiser. I feel like not a lot of people take that into consideration. Your vote is entirely up to you. We're fortunate enough to be in a country where we can cast our votes without being tracked down and harm or humiliated. So why not take advantage of that? Why not use that as a tool to vote how you want?

Let's look at the third parties. Typically, we narrow down presidential candidates to one Republican and one Democrat, but it's rare for a third-party candidate to make it. So how do those citizens vote? It isn't like they are committed to either of the parties. So what does it come down to? How do they decide? Well, as any person should, they choose the candidate that matches what they believe we need in a leader. So, it isn't very difficult.

At the end of the day, we have a duty and a very important role in deciding the future of our country.

This is the world we are creating for ourselves. Don't let your pride get in the way of choosing what is best for you and for every other citizen. Remember, you don't have to tell anyone who you vote for. Just like you don't have to vote for a candidate just because they're on your party. You have free will, so don't let it go to waste.

Don't forget to cast your votes for the 2020 presidential election! Your vote counts, so please use it wisely.