--Emma Goldman
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 freebasing hyena.
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 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."
If anyone should appreciate my mentality, it should be
progressives. Or so their slogans--Think globally, act locally--would lead us
to believe. I don’t believe in voting, so by not voting, I am being the change
I want to see in the world. I am thinking globally and acting locally. I am
following Ghandi's advice.
George Carlin said it best:
I have solved this political dilemma in a very direct way: I
don't vote. On Election Day, I stay home. I firmly believe that if you vote,
you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They
say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain,' but where's the logic
in that? If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and
they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they
have done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to
complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote — who did not even leave the
house on Election Day — am in no way responsible for what these politicians
have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created.
