“If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don't bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and watching MTV on primary day. By all means stay home if you want, but don't bullshit yourself that you're not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.”
- David Foster Wallace
I'm sure there are nuances to voter theory, but there does seem to be some mathematical sense behind that. If only one person voted in an election, that vote would have more power than the votes of 2 people, which would have more power than the votes of 100 people. It seems ... the fewer people that vote, the more each vote counts.
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Related to not voting:
ReplyDeleteA pet peeve of mind is the idea of voting for the "lesser evil." This doesn't apply to bills like GMO labeling, but it does for candidates.
Vote your conscience. It's not "throwing away a vote." I don't have a problem with you voting for one of the major parties if you feel they adequately represent you. But if they don't, then don't vote for either of them. Write in a vote if needed.
Nothing will change if you give in to the idea that you only have a choice between two candidates.
Not a popular view, but I couldn't help myself. :)
shaun