(Why I Dont Vote)
I don’t vote because the primary legitimate option for dissenting against a whole system of “representative democracy” is to abstain.
People have been so fixated on voting that they have forgotten or lost faith in other means of applying power. It’s for this reason that losses in elections have demoralized and disempowered the people in general. Anti-authoritarians, on the other hand, while claiming not to recognize the sovereignty of any officials, elected or not, have nonetheless developed their own mythology around voting, attributing to it the mystical power to “legitimize” authority figures thus elected.
Voting doesn’t give power to politicians, just as abstaining cant take it away from them. Politicians have power because we place our power in their hands, because we fail to apply it deliberately to ourselves.
The arguments over whether or not to vote and if we do – who to vote for will not come to an end anytime soon. The truth is that the whole thing is pretty irrelevant. Elections are in truth of little importance and provide far less influence on the machinations of the system than we are often told.
Most advocates of the voting process, laymen and all, do so out of a belief that the United States of America is a democracy. What is forgotten is that America is not a democracy at all, but a republic. A republic is a system wherein the people choose representatives who, in turn, make policy decisions on their behalf.
Even moreso, we exist in a thinly Plutocratic Oligarchy wherein a minority of obscenely rich people and international corporations control the government through such means as lobbyists, bribes, and campaign contributions. For a second, imagine if the millions rose for lets say, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were actually poured into the communities that the two aforementioned gladiators propose to serve. But that would never happen.
In a TRUE democracy (which ain’t perfect), the voters vote on actual issues, and not representatives who will in turn vote on those very same issues. Some will say that this is the description of a DIRECT Democracy. But what is a democracy if it isn’t direct? In short, the voting process as it stands is supportive of MINORITY RULE.
Case in point – instead of gathering up every last (So called) American to vote on whether or not we should go to war, we must submit to the determination of elected officials. In the hopes that they would vote on the issues as “we would have”.
And of course, most people do not trust the decisions of the very people they have voted for. But they insist on choosing the “lesser of two evils’.
Most people vote and defend this ‘so called’ right out of desperation. They couldn’t imagine things getting done in society without appointing an elected official to govern and preside over the fate of each individual citizen. Second class citizen that is.
This is totally understood and so delineation must be made between Abstinence and Apathy. The solution is a radical one. The people must train and educate themselves to the part that they could effectively and earnestly provide the services and facilities we traditionally depend on the government for.
For example, do we wait for FEMA? Or do we rent vans and trucks and feed, clothe and counsel Disaster Victims our selves? Do we call the police when we see brothers on the corner potentially ‘wildin’?
Or do we engage, educate and train these brothers ourselves? To some, it’s far fetched. To others it’s called COMMUNITY CONTROL and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. It takes a village to raise a child but it takes a king to raise a village? Something isn’t clean in the milk.
While, the government continues to deny millions the ‘right’ to vote, we overlook the fact that this process is in direct violation of HUMAN RIGHTS. This government, in essence, is in the business of controlling the lives of others. The control or confiscation of personal property through taxation, regulation, and/or restriction of trade.
The writer, for the sake of argument, concedes that politicians beseech citizens for aid in order to be elected, but as soon as they are in office? While the consideration gradually weakens, the power structure is immediately switched from the hands of the many…to the pinkies of the few.
Why give moral support to an immoral institution? We feed the youth a myth which is based upon the “illusion of choice” manufactured to pacify the oppressed majority of this world.
What’s important is what you’re doing in the time in “grey days in between” the booth and lever. The key thing is to seize and apply power ourselves, which means getting organized and giving the government a good kicking. It’s been done before and it can be done again. The United States of America were built on this very principle.
They speak about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. 24 years ago it was Jesse Jackson and Geraldine Ferraro.
This writer has never been registered to vote and encourages the reader to withdraw their consent to be governed. It’s mind boggling to some how one could be an active proponent of Socio-Economic change while boycotting voting at the same time. There are some who’s only greatness is the organizing of THOUSANDS of masses in the support of the promises of ONE.
But don’t worry…as much as I don’t vote…I dont complain either
They say that if you don’t vote you cant complain.
Perhaps if you DO vote, you shouldn’t be complaining either.
After all, you get what your hands calls for. How has it been going thus far?
Peace and revolutionary love..
Now for a quote:
Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison… Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay [the State], and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible. If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, ‘But what shall I do?’ my answer is, ‘If you really wish to do anything, resign your office.’ When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned from office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man’s real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now.”
HENRY THORAEU
HOOD INTELLIGENCE 
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