It's Okay That You're Not Voting Today
John
Carney | Nov. 3, 2009, 8:03 AM
The odds are that you did not vote today.
If you are anything like us, not voting is a triumph of sense over
propaganda. We've received a bunch of emails from friends and concerned
citizens urging us to vote this way or that, for one politician or his
doppelganger. Some have even implored us to vote regardless of which
candidate we favor, out of some sense of civic duty.
Yet we didn't vote. And neither did most of you.
We all know that voting is irrational. The odds of influencing the
outcome of an election are vanishingly small. You are better off being a
free-rider on the votes of others. What's more, the odds that a candidate
for whom you vote will successfully carry out policies that match your
preferences are even worse. For many of the offices to which men and
women will be elected today, you do not actually have any preferences at
all.
Voting can also be counter-productive, which is what makes those
campaigns urging people to vote so destructive. If you are only so
slightly informed about an election that you need to be convinced to
vote, your preferences are likely to be ill-informed. You'll vote
according to heuristics--ethnicity, party lines, for familiar names--that
political operatives can predict and exploit. We're probably all better
off if we leave the voting to the informed and committed.
Then again, informed voting may be over-rated. Knowing a lot about a
candidate's positions and current social problems may not make you very
good at choosing between candidates. Campaign promises are not a good
guide to political performance--they are forward looking statements,
after all. And often 'informed voters' are simply committed ideologues.
It's not clear that more informed voting produces qualitatively improved
governance.
Voting is probably the least effective way to make your political
preferences influence elections. You'd do far more with a bumper sticker,
a chat with a neighbor or a bar-side argument over politics. So if
you do have strong preferences, by election day it's already too late.
The uninformed mass of voters and the ideologically committed have
already made up their minds. You are already irrelevant.
Some democratic fanatics will tell you that if you don't vote then you
give up your right to dissent against subsequent government policies.
I've never understood this weird part of pseudo-democratic theory. It
certainly isn't part of the constitution of the United States, which
preserves the rights of free speech, free press and petitioning the
government even for non-voters. If anything, the opposite should be true:
by voting you are tacitly agreeing to abide by the outcome of the vote.
By not voting, you are doing not such thing.
We don't think voting is awful. After all, it isn't as if you are
voluntarily participating in the inevitable exploitation of the people by
the government in favor of the well connected. You have not choice but to
participate. The coercive elements of a government captured by special
interests are present all around you, conscripting the fruits of your
labor for their ends--propping up fallen banks, engaging in foreign wars,
sponsoring the destruction of your culture, and pure self-dealing by
politicians. It's easy to see why you might want to play some small role
in protecting your life, your fortune and whatever is left of your honor
from this kind of situation.
There are also plenty of non-political reasons to vote. If you are lonely
or elderly, voting might be a good chance to meet people. Lots of other
people like you will be gathered in one place. You already have something
in common--you like to vote. Odds are that this is a signal of all sorts
of other beliefs about life that you also share with your fellow voters.
Often there is also free coffee at voting places.
Just don't let anyone make you feel bad about not voting. The insistence
that you have given up some sacred right or failed to performed a civic
duty is the clearest sign of someone who either doesn't really understand
politics at all or was trying to manipulate you. Feel free to encourage
them in this disordered thinking by telling them that you would have
voted if only they had reminded you earlier that it was election day. It
will drive them a bit crazy to hear that if only they had worked harder
at getting out the vote, you might have voted. And witnessing the
irrationality and mistakes of others is one of the fine pleasures of
election day.
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/its-okay-that-you-didnt-vote-today-2009-11#ixzz14QWUBhIj
http://read.bi/aH9Ywe
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