I’m not voting this November. Unless you believe any of the major candidates in this year’s election will improve our country for the better, you shouldn’t either.

I’m embarrassed that our country’s highest office has devolved into what it has today. Instead of of electing officials who are fit to lead our country, our election process has become a peanut gallery where politicians whore themselves to win the favor of the American electorate.

Instead of the office of the presidency symbolizing a leader who puts the goals of the people before their own, it’s on the verge of housing a dystopian dictator, pathological liar, or two ignorant idealists. You can’t win with any of them.

An educated voter can’t realistically pick any of our candidates. Sure, every candidate in the history of our country has had flaws and weaknesses, but not on this scale. With the exception of maybe Barry Goldwater or George Wallace, I’ve never doubted that any major candidate could handle the job if he or she was elected. Yes, I might not have always agreed with their policies, but I was never apprehensive of their abilities to lead our nation.

The unbridled disaster of this election presents a unique threat to our way of life. We are a country founded on the rhetoric of those who believed in something greater than themselves.

We’re stuck with a man who has no foreign policy knowledge, is by definition a racist, bigot, and sexist, and is an all-around terrible human being.

We’re stuck with a woman who used a private email server while Secretary of State, gave speeches to Wall Street firms which contradict her public policies, and who took as much as $156 million dollars of private donations while in office. Ethics don’t seem to be her strong suit.

We’re stuck with a man who doesn’t have an even basic grasp on one of the worst humanitarian crises in our generation, can’t name even one foreign leader he admires, and presumably doesn’t know the name of a dictator of a country we’re constantly at odds with.

We’re stuck with a woman whose solution to our national debt is to forgive all current student loans, cut defense spending by 50%, put a moratorium on all GMOs until they’re deemed safe, and who thinks that WiFi is dangerous to the human brain.

Seriously.

Please stop me if you think any one of these presidencies would be a good idea. And it now seems that people are shocked that we’re left with these choices, when primaries and caucuses had just under a 30% turnout.

This monster was built from our apathy. If not apathy, then ignorance. Many didn’t take the flaws of these candidates seriously when we had the chance and now seem surprised that the elections have turned out the way they have. If you didn’t vote in the primaries, you have no right to complain about it.

I voted for a candidate whom I believed in. Instead of wasting my time with writing in his name on the ballot, I’m going to stay home. This decision is more than casting a vote merely because I’m afraid of the outcome.

I’m not going to be manipulated in casting a vote this year, simply because it’s my “duty as a citizen.” I vote because I believe my vote counts toward a better future for our nation, that my vote actually makes a difference. I vote because I believe in the process, and our election process is broken.

It’s my hope that you do some introspection and determine whether you should stay home on Election Day too. If you don’t believe in the cause, don’t vote.