To Vote or Not to Vote

The election is coming up this year, and I am beginning to feel pressure to choose a candidate to vote for. Too bad I don't really care. I think any of the candidates are going to screw things up and not really accomplish as much as they claim, so why does it matter? I think the Democrats and the Republicans have both lost their center and have become all about being opposed to the other party, and I don't really want to get involved with those kind of politics.

But I have been taught for most of my life that it is my "civic duty" to vote, by religious and non-religious alike. I sometimes wonder whether they really think it is my duty, or if they have an agenda in getting me to vote (like getting their candidate voted in). Is it really my "duty" to vote, or is it merely my right that I may choose to use? Does God care about my "civic duty"?

I know that there are verses in the Bible that talk about "giving to Caesar what is Caesar's" (meaning pay your taxes), but does the Bible talk about participating in government? Would participating in government be living too much in the world? Or is it pretty much a take it or leave it thing with God?

Does God really call us to change the world? That is one thing I have run into, is that many Christians seem to think we are called to change the world, and I'm not sure where exactly God said that (I'm sure He said something that has been interpreted that way, but I don't know). I do know that God's biggest concern is that we love people the way He loves His Son and the way He loves us. Voting seems irrelevant when held up to the two greatest commandments.