Not voting is often a matter of principle for some people. Stand up comedian Mike Payne makes a seriously good case here:
I don’t vote. I also avoid conversations about voting, because when I mention I don’t vote, otherwise reasonable people respond by shrieking like a hyena that has been freebasing.
MAN travels in packs; even supposed !INDIVIDUALISTS! feel better when they can be part of the mob. Voting helps sate this craving, and trying to argue the herd out of herding is like giving the finger to gravity. Doesn’t accomplish much.
Still, the sanctimony of proud voters during Presidential races is so feverish I can’t help myself.
The least impressive argument I hear from voters: People died to give you the right to vote.
So what? People also died defending the Third Reich. Their dying for a cause doesn’t alter the merits of the cause one bit. Dying isn’t a big deal. People die running themselves over with their own riding lawnmowers. Their death doesn’t elevate my view of them.
Look at how progressives react when a Christian tells them that Jesus died for us. The progressives laugh, gag, or squawk (not a bad name for a game show). What they don’t do is start going to church. Progressives–or just non-Christians in general–don’t feel any obligation to Christ based on his dying for a cause.
I remember once speaking to someone–a proud progressive, AND SHE VOTES!–who couldn’t leave well enough alone. She kept serving big, clichéd bowls of “It’s your civic duty to vote” chowder.
Finally I said something like, “I don’t believe in the political system, so by not participating, I am being the change I want to see in the world.”
It’s not just a minority of people who appear to agree with him. Foreign Policy reports:
[W]hat I don’t understand is why no one is addressing the elephant in the room: the fact that some 40 percent of Americans of voting age don’t see any reason to cast their votes on election day at all.
In national election after national election, eligible voters who choose to refrain from voting make up what some political scientists have called a “silent plurality.” There have been moments when that plurality was pretty close to becoming a majority. In 1996, 49.1 percent of the voting age population declined to go to the polls. In 2008, turnout of eligible voters went all the way up to 61.7 percent — the highest since 1968, mind you. But the number of those who refused to vote — or just didn’t care — was still significantly larger than those who voted for Barack Obama, the winning candidate. Non-voters, in short, make up the biggest electoral bloc in the nation.
I wonder if my fellow Disinfonaughts agree with voting or not? Place your vote in the comments section..
