For the first 17 years of my life, I hadn't thought much about voting.

In fact, you could say I downright avoided anything remotely related to politics. Voting was WWII and I was depression-ridden, isolationist America; I just didn't want to get involved.

But with the 2008 elections falling two months after my eighteenth birthday (September 6 if any gracious soul cares to send a gift), I feel it's my duty as an American to start caring and start being a part of the legislations and decisions that will shape my future and the future of my hopeful offspring. I just hope that my Irish Roman Catholic background and my moderate Republican parents don't get in the way of any of it.

Not that I'm trying to undermine my parents, it's just that, isn't the point of voting to choose who I want vote for? I'm fortunate enough though to have parents who let me have my own opinions and don't let the shadows of their political preferences eclipse my own. My dad once told me that when it was time for me to vote that I needed to "vote for someone because of their values, not what their mascot is."

And I'm grateful to him for that.

There are thousands of young voters out there who don't have that option, or rather, choose not to embrace another option because of what their parents or religion or whatever has built up in their minds as the end all, be all of political parties. And it's just such a parochial way to choose the leader that will govern their lives for the next four, possibly eight, years.

I have a friend (who would probably scold me in earnest if she knew I was lumping her into this category) who is a Republican. She flaunts it openly and with gusto the likes of which the world has never seen. She also happens to be Protestant. I can't help but wonder that if she didn't feel obligated by her religion to swing with a historically conservative party whether or not she would still choose to be a Republican. I'm not saying this without grounds either. One of her Myspace heroes is Reagan. And I'm pretty sure he was before her time.

I'm guilty of bandwagon hopping too, but not when it comes to a decision that outlines how I think my country should be run.

Parents are just as guilty for coaxing their children into following them duckling-style into a political outfit for which they know little about. I have another friend (don't ask me where I dig them all up) who is guilty of this second voting sin. Her mother and father are both conservative Republicans and she has followed them suit in her political preferences. Democrat is a foreign country to her, and she doesn't even want to try to learn its language.

I'll bet geneticists didn't see this one coming: it turns out that parents aren't just handing down their genes, they're handing down their family's traditional political beliefs too.

I am one of the lucky ones. My parents are neither pious Christians nor adamant Republicans. They have not pounded their beliefs into my head with the hope that when the time comes, I'll make the decision in a way I see fit; by judging the books by their contents, not by their covers.

McCain doesn't understand why the Democratic youth dislike his values and Clinton and Obama don't understand why Republican youth dislike their values. I'll let you guys in on a secret: most of them don't know why either.

I won't go as far to say it's an epidemic, because it's in no way temporary, but I will say that a cure for it is needed. Passing down genes is visceral, quintessential. Passing down Republican or Democratic favoritism is corrosive, marring. I challenge the youth of this nation to break the shell of whatever their family has believed in and choose a candidate for their personal goals and presidential aspirations, not just because they're a donkey or an elephant.

Let's just hope for the sake of this year's presidential candidates that it's not all in the genes.