scrawls.

scrawls

still cheaper than therapy*

4.11.08

do it now

Not voting, when you have the opportunity and the right to do so, is not a statement. Staying home because you are dissatisfied with the choices, because you don't want to wait in line, because you disagree with the whole system, for any reason at all, not going to the polls gives the same signal as apathy. It will not get you representation you will like any better. In a stable, established republic like the USA, it is not a form of political protest that will garner results, and all you can do is deliberately silence yourself.

And once you have deliberately silenced yourself, nobody is going to listen to you. Why would they, when they can ignore you while you sit on the sidelines? Not voting in solidarity with non-citizens or felons will not change anything. Not voting to protest electronic voting machines is not going to keep them from being used. Staying home to protest the long lines or the inconveniences or inaccessibilities means that that many more people are effectively disenfranchised and not heard. Not voting because voting is ineffectual in bringing about change is waiting for something that will never come. Not voting because neither candidate is perfect will affect nothing until you, yourself, run for office, because nobody will ever agree with you on everything. Staying home because you don't understand the issues through lack of time, or because you don't know the candidates' positions, can only show that you haven't even passed by a newspaper headline in months; Obama has been on the View and McCain has been on Letterman and if none of your friends are spam-emailing you with long lists of reasons, you're luckier than most people I know. Not voting because you are only one voice in a chorus of millions still removes the power of your voice from that chorus; every vote counts, every vote is the deciding vote, and we need every one. When you have the right and the opportunity to vote but do not, and particularly when you trumpet that you will not be voting, you allow those who win the election to do whatever they want with the vast resources that will be at their disposal, with zero oversight from you. Not voting because of the divisiveness and un-neighborliness it can cause mocks democracy. Not voting because by voting, you would be participating in and thus validating an immoral system perpetuates that very system - vote for the Socialist candidate to change the system, vote for the Green party candidate to shout your priorities, vote for Christ or for Gloria Steinem or for Rachel Maddow if you want; we have a write-in line - but by not showing up at the polls, you remove yourself from the entire conversation and insulate it against you.

Not voting because it's "the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people," well, it's still the best system we've got, so if you cannot support this but persist in thinking that something better will come along, i would love to hear when and how and why you think that change will happen - will it be something other than incremental and from-within? Will there be a revolution? Will the government one day just up and decide to go home, if nobody is telling it to? No. When someone is doing something immoral, how is it not better to say No than to not respond? Not voting because it dilutes responsibility for the atrocities our government commits does not abjure your responsibility, but affirms your complacence.

The way votes are counted, Party A got X%, and Party B got X%, of the counted polls. To not vote for either (and to avoid "the lesser of two evils"), go to the polls, vote on your local elections (they're important too, and can have more impact on electronic polling machines, long lines at polling locations, and other forms of disinfranchisement, as well as all the other local issues and lower-level politicians, and there are many that could use your input!) and leave the Presidential box and/or any others blank, or write in a name of your choice (for example, Cynthia McKinney). By doing this, you show that you care about and are active in the political sphere, but do not approve of any candidate; avoiding the vote altogether shows none of these things.

And while I would vastly prefer it if Obama won by a historic, crushing landslide, if that is really and truly not the will of the American people, then so be it. I will still be glad to be a citizen. (I think. I hope.)

Work for change, if you want. Talk to your neighbors, to your communities. Speak out at City Council meetings. Write your representatives, even if every word condemns the whole system. There are many additional ways to make yourself heard. But going to the polls must (in this American system, when one has the right and the opportunity to do so) be the first and most basic step.

xposted: feministing, dailykos

Labels: politics

scrawled @ 00:01

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