I'm a USA Citizen Who has Never Voted in American Elections

I'd like to make things clear. I made aliyah, that means moved to Israel, the Land of Israel, the Holyland the summer when I was twenty-one 21 years old. In those days, voting in the United States was only for those twenty-one 21 years old and up. And since we left in late August, I never had the chance to vote. And since it was in 1970 (yes you can do the math and figure out my age) when there's no Presidential election, and in those days there weren't primaries, I never even thought of elections and voting.

It may be hard for people today to imagine or remember, but in 1970, there were no computers, internet, cellphones etc. In Israel there weren't even phones in many homes. To phone abroad meant going through an overseas operator, deciding whether the call should be "station to station" or "person to person." And mail was either by ship or if you paid more, by airmail.

So once we left the Port of New York, yes, by boat, American politics was firmly on the backburner.

“Nancy Reagan peeks around the polling booth as Gov. Ronald Reagan cast his vote in the 1980 Presidential election.” [Bettmann/Corbis]

Today as a very active blogger and political pundit, who is not at all shy about voicing my opinions, sometimes I think it's rather incongruous for me not to voice it where it counts in American Elections. I certainly vote in Israeli Elections.

According to American Law I do have the right and privilege to vote. I have just never exercised that privilege. The only "relationship" I still keep with the United States Government is renewing my passport. I need it to travel to see family in America. I have no desire to be in the situation wherein I am dependent on some clerk's whim for a visa, but if the United States Supreme Court ever decides that I must choose between countries, as it was until about fifty years ago when it was illegal to have dual citizenship, then, I'm an Israeli only.

On one hand I can easily admit that I haven't voted in American Elections because of inertia, laziness. It just never was my routine and would demand filling out annoying forms and then being forced to make a decision.

But I do have two very differnt ideological reasons not to vote:

1. One is that I don't feel that it's right for me, a permanent citizen and resident of the State of Israel to vote for American elected officials. 
2. Two is that in the decades, half a century at least, that I have been observing and following American politics, one thing I've learned. That is that party/candidate platforms are no more than misleading advertising. Politicians are people who will say anything to get elected. So, why should I bother voting, when either I'll be disappointed because my candidate will lose or if he/she gets elected I'll be upset at the actual policy which will not be the campaign platform.

These two points don't really dampen my fascination with political campaign shenanigans that go on; if anything they increase my interest.

Don't Vote

What do you think?