Orwell wrote:
@Speckles: All right, well, you're free to disregard anyone's views as you please. We all do so from time to time. I wasn't putting forward the case of voting being pointless in this thread, just trying to show that such a view is at least internally consistent and the only way to refute it is to go after the assumptions it makes, which you addressed by referencing the Obama campaign. Anyways, I did vote in the primaries, and will probably vote in the general election if I can find a candidate that I feel I can support. But I understand that most people do not share my views and would be happier to maintain the status quo, so any activism I would participate in would be geared to somewhat more moderate ends- striving for a balanced budget rather than gutting the federal government, advocating Friedman's NIT idea rather than attempting to dismantle the IRS, etc.
Ahh, sorry for taking so long to respond, my interwebs has been flaky
. Anyways, I just want to add that, in your case at least, not voting would not be enough to make me actually disregard your views, as they have much else to recommend them. It's simply one factor of many that I use to filter.
I was more trying to point out that being disdainful of those who don't vote is also an internally consistent view, even if the efficacy of voting is in question. It's not just people being holier-then-thou, though this definitely the case for some (though the opposite is also true, that some who abstain from voting are just plain apathetic). On an individual level voting can serve as a token of political responsibility and commitment to the local community; this is actually why I would support requiring people to put in a number of volunteer hours to the community in order to earn the right to vote. That would reinforce the association between good citizenship and voting, and encourage those who aren't willing to take the time to properly inform themselves to not vote. Anyone who isn't willing to spend a few hours reading and thinking about the issues probably also isn't willing to spend a few hours working for free.
The point were I feel that voting becomes pointless is when is when you know that the votes are not going to be counted properly or respected. I'm not talking about the level of vote skewing that went on in the 2000 US elections; that at best was a few percentage points, and the slight fraud wouldn't have worked if there had really been a strong preference for one candidate. I'm talking about the second round of voting in Zimbabwe, where it's totally obvious that the game is crooked. But the situation in the US is a far cry from that.
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I have seen the truth and it makes no sense.