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Monday, January 21, 2008
Wherin I pose a few questions
My previous post drew the following comment:
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"Apathetic or not blood was shed in order for you to have the
ability to vote even if the rest of the country is apathetic you
should use the gift that many have died to give you. Count or not
it makes a statement. Get off your undecided a.. and be
responsible."
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My questions are the following:
- Doesn't my not voting for a candidate make a statement too, actually a more powerful statement, than voting for the candidate or idea I dislike the least? Voting, just for the sake of voting makes as much sense a voting for someone just because they are a woman, black or evangelical.
- How is my not voting irresponsible if I am given poor choices of whom or what to vote for? Sometime the responsible choice is not to choose.
- Wouldn't it also hold true that though blood was shed for the "right" to vote that it was also shed for the right not to vote?
Rights are ours to execute or not. A free country with a compulsory vote is a contradiction in terms. Not that anyone is actually campaigning for a compulsory vote. Yet. What people are doing is completely ignoring the opinions of anyone who chooses not to vote. Liberals, Moderates and conservatives alike will tune out the sound of your voice zealously if you ever let slip a single election abstinence.
The key missing question, of course, is why did you vote or not vote? If your answer is "politics doesn't interest me", then of course your opinion on political matters matters not. If, however, you have decided that a vote for any of the candidates is equal to or worse than not voting at all, then your act of abstaining is itself a vote. I does not mean you're not entitled to an opinion. Quite the contrary.
A vote for a candidate is the act of you giving that person sanction (or permission) of their positions. Giving my vote to one candidate as opposed to the other says "I believe that you are better than the other guy and I approve of your ideas and ideals." But I don't.
I propose that the citizens of the United States be given the same privilege as our leaders. Give us an "I abstain" button in the voting booth. Give us the ability to show our leaders that we are not abstaining out of apathy.
Let a voters abstinence be shown for what it is meant to be. A vote of conscience.
