Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Knock The Vote

I've recently been accused of un-American activities for my expressed intention to forego my hard-won franchise and pass on this year's mid-term election. That's right. I'm not voting.

The first vote I ever cast was an absentee ballot in the 1992 presidential election for H. Ross Perot. If there could ever be a better indication I am unfit to select my leaders, it alludes my imagination. (Mostly, I was pretty baked at the time and thought it would be funny. It was.)

I didn't vote in 1996, and in 2000 I voted for Rick Lazio in the New York Senate race against Hillary Clinton. Not because I like Lazio (did anyone?) but because I despised Clinton's entitled, shrill, grating persona.

I voted for Gore and Kerry, and look how that turned out.

So now I'm returning to my roots. And judging by the 63 percent of eligible voters who routinely do not vote in mid-term elections, I'm not alone.

I won't vote in this midterm election because my vote simply won't count, in the sense that it can't possibly decide the outcome. Added to which, gerrymandered districts trick you into thinking you are a member of a representative republic when you are merely a cog in a cynical machine set to a pre-determined outcome.

There are plenty of good reasons not to vote. And appealing to my patriotism or willingness to commit a symbolic act ain't any kind of temptation. I prefer to act realistically and leave the symbolism to poets.

4 comments:

arielle said...

Who in heavens name accused you of such a thing?

Oh, right.

Sure, voting is not rational behavior. Your individual punch or lever-pull or touchscreen...touch is rarely the deciding factor in any particular election - though that argument's gotten hard to make lately, considering how many elections are very very close.

But your vote is also more than symbolic. It is the basic unit by which we elect representatives. Sure, there are problems with the system, but voting itself is not one of them. It is one of the few arenas where no one has more power than anyone else (unless you live in Chicago and vote often). You actually need votes to win an election, not just money and slick TV ads.

And as a blue state bleeding heart liberal, I will say that you owe it to those who fought for the right to vote, and those in other countries who do not have it. Or would you like to tell all those blue-ink-stained Iraqis that their votes were worthless?

If you don't like how the system works, you don't stand much of a chance of affecting it if you don't vote for someone who will do something about it. Don't like the candidates? Do something about that. Voting needn't be your entire contribution to politics, but it's the prerequesite for entry - mostly because it's so damn easy.

I don't recall the opinion or actions of 63 million Americans having been a particularly persuasive argument in your book on most other things. Plenty of people believed Saddam was linked to 9/11, but that doesn't give it legitimacy. Plenty of people are disengaged idiots, and that's not a particularly good reason to justify your own actions, particulalry when your other arguments involve citing policy journals. Being too lazy to learn who's running in your state's contested senate race, filling out a piece of paper and standing in line at your local elementary school is really pathetic.

But perhaps we can reach a compromise. If you forego your right to vote, you also forego your right to carp about anything going on in American politics until you get your ass to a polling place circa 2008.

D. Bones said...

Don't be ridiculous. Voting is a right, not an obligation. Refusing to contribute and offer your tacit approval to a corrupt, phony system can be just as valid a statement as speaking up in a puny voice among a crowd of tens of millions of other people.

I'm not saying my position is so principled, of course. Anyone could guess I'm more lazy than prinicipled.

But not voting does not mean I've relinquished my ability to complain about or oppose my elected representatives in conversation. By your logic, someone who voted for Bush has given up his right to complain about how he has led the country. Wrong. It's still your country, no matter what you do in a voting booth.

What, exactly do you do about your political gripes other than vote? I'd venture to say you impart your vote with excessive importance just to compensate for your powerlessness and make you feel better for not being more of an activist (who often accomplish just as little, bless their souls).

And however inspiring those purple-fingered voting Iraqis might have been, what did they really earn with their vote? A sectarian, hardly representative, squabbling, corrupt quasi-government that supports armed militias and death squads. Yay, democracy!

It's awfully hard to relate to the argument that I owe something to those who fought for my right to vote. It's been a few years since we've heard anything from George Washington. And while I always admired those founding dads growing up, I've become a little more cynical about their ideals. Were colonists really so oppressed? Or did they simply not want to pay taxes anymore?

I'm not arguing the vitues of laziness or throwing my lot in with the majority of stupid Americans who made Jerry Bruckheimer a multi-millionaire and selected Taylor Hicks as their American Idol.

But I'm also not voting. Even if I stayed home and made puppets out of dust bunnies, my time would be better spent.

arielle said...

Yes, voting is voluntary (though quite a few countries actually require it). But if you plan on carping about politics and the current administration as much as you do, I think it should be considered a requirement to at least expend the minimal effort required to weigh in in the only forum that actually counts.

That doesn't preclude Bush voters from complaining about him now, either. It's one thing to say "I (was hoodwinked and) voted for a compassionate conservative, and I'm pissed at what we got," and quite another to say "Enh, I couldn't be bothered to cast a ballot, but listen to me complain anyway about a process I willfully ignored."

(Because while voting is a right, complaining is not. Even for you, my dear Bonesy.)

Sadly, I don't do a whole lot in politics other than vote, but that's largely because my employer bans me from contributing money to any political candidate or cause, volunteering for them, or otherwise expressing my opinion publicly on controversial matters (fortunately, no one reads this blog). Yours too, I suspect.

And you give activists too little credit. Before it got taken over by the big oil, big money types, the conservative movement was a small grassroots effort that has come back to wallop all those who ignored it. The Christian fundamentalists are by and large not bankrolled by massive powerful corporations, but very passionate coalitions of smaller organizations that are incredibly organized and have become hugely influential. You seem to miss the fact that these things don't happen in a vacuum. The right got radicalized because the ultraconservatives ran for and won seats on local party committees, ran in Republican primaries, and overtook the party. It's all local level stuff, and that is where you can often have the greatest effect. The national scene is largely a reflection of what began on the local level 20 years ago.

But I suspect you will continue to ignore my arguments and reason and logic and cling to your justifications for laziness. What I really need is for Aaron Sorkin to take a break from writing bad TV and write a Jed Bartlet-like response to put this all to rest.

D. Bones said...

I serve at the pleasure of the president.

But if you want to use the evangelical Republicans as the paragon of voting virtue, check out the new book from one of Bush's faith-based initiative guys who says the administration ridicules the true-believers behind their backs while cynically courting their votes.

Their votes count least of all, if judged by the actual results they thought they were voting for.

And your vote counts just as little.

Don't try to play as though you'd be camping on Bush's lawn with Cindy Sheehan if only your job would let you.

And if I were to vote just to appease you or to accede to some of your arguments, nothing would be any different. The election would go the way it was going to go. Our government would still be corrupt and ineffective. And I'd still bitch about it.

Note: I don't really complain about the government. That would imply I'm directing my anger and frustration at its source. I'm simply commiserating with someone whom I know is like-minded and equally powerless. Welcome to the club!