Don't Vote
The internet is clogged right now with people telling you to vote on Tuesday, especially if you live in the US. It is a scientific fact that, even more than voting yourself, urging other people to vote makes you a goody-goody. Not only are you assuming that you know more about politics than average (vain), you're assuming that other people's good-citizenship is in your hands, like you're standing between them and anarchy.
I'm going to break with the chorus and tell you, please don't vote. There are so many good reasons not to. First, there is virtually no chance your vote will make a difference. Most politicians run in enormous constituencies, and one vote has never decided a race since "Landslide Morton" in 1839. To think that your one vote will decide a race? Vanity. And even if your vote did technically tip the count in favor of the other candidate, a close result like that would be litigated to death, and the winner would be the one with the best lawyers or rioters or something.
Second, you should really only vote if you think you know more about politics than the median voter. Of course you probably do think that -- most people think they know more than most people about most things -- but be honest with yourself. Half of all voters aren't. In an ideal world of course, only the single most savvy person in each constituency would vote, but let's try to approach that figure as nearly as possible.
A corollary is that I shouldn't want you to vote. I naturally think I know more about politics than average, which means that everyone else on average knows slightly less about politics than average. Therefore, I don't want an arbitrary "other" person voting. Of course, it's another story if you don't live in my congressional district. (It's the long skinny one.) Then by all means vote if you feel like it, because I trust my readership to be smarter than average.
Still, there's something presumptuous about asking people to vote. How do you know they share your political affiliation? What if they like Lyndon LaRouche? Or Vermin Supreme? I guess people who like the same things are slightly more likely to support the same candidate than average, but you're probably not helping much in any event. Even more sickening is the thought that they don't care, that they just want to improve turnout regardless. This is kind of like saying you want to improve the wheat harvest, but if rats eat the surplus, that's good too. At least you did your agricultural (civic) duty by raising crop yields. Get a more useful goal. Raising voter turnout will only serve to get the least interested, least engaged, least knowledgeable citizens to the polls. Do you really want them controlling your future? Vox populi est vox dei, but there's something to be said for most people being kind of dumb when it comes to politics, too.
If you want to look at it this way, you can think of not voting as an act of charity. If you live in a district of N voters, staying home will give each of your neighbors 1/(N-1) extra votes, and all you have to do is keep your opinions to yourself. A Guy Fawkes Day bounty indeed. I don't know how someone got the idea that it was not only acceptable , but positively virtuous, to tell other people "here's how I think our government should be run. I know best, and I want to tell you all how to run your government." In normal life, that kind of behavior makes you a jerk. Modesty never hurt anybody.
Meanwhile, anything that begins "if you don't vote, you have no right to complain," or "people died for the right to vote" is beneath contempt.
I'm going to break with the chorus and tell you, please don't vote. There are so many good reasons not to. First, there is virtually no chance your vote will make a difference. Most politicians run in enormous constituencies, and one vote has never decided a race since "Landslide Morton" in 1839. To think that your one vote will decide a race? Vanity. And even if your vote did technically tip the count in favor of the other candidate, a close result like that would be litigated to death, and the winner would be the one with the best lawyers or rioters or something.
Second, you should really only vote if you think you know more about politics than the median voter. Of course you probably do think that -- most people think they know more than most people about most things -- but be honest with yourself. Half of all voters aren't. In an ideal world of course, only the single most savvy person in each constituency would vote, but let's try to approach that figure as nearly as possible.
A corollary is that I shouldn't want you to vote. I naturally think I know more about politics than average, which means that everyone else on average knows slightly less about politics than average. Therefore, I don't want an arbitrary "other" person voting. Of course, it's another story if you don't live in my congressional district. (It's the long skinny one.) Then by all means vote if you feel like it, because I trust my readership to be smarter than average.
Still, there's something presumptuous about asking people to vote. How do you know they share your political affiliation? What if they like Lyndon LaRouche? Or Vermin Supreme? I guess people who like the same things are slightly more likely to support the same candidate than average, but you're probably not helping much in any event. Even more sickening is the thought that they don't care, that they just want to improve turnout regardless. This is kind of like saying you want to improve the wheat harvest, but if rats eat the surplus, that's good too. At least you did your agricultural (civic) duty by raising crop yields. Get a more useful goal. Raising voter turnout will only serve to get the least interested, least engaged, least knowledgeable citizens to the polls. Do you really want them controlling your future? Vox populi est vox dei, but there's something to be said for most people being kind of dumb when it comes to politics, too.
If you want to look at it this way, you can think of not voting as an act of charity. If you live in a district of N voters, staying home will give each of your neighbors 1/(N-1) extra votes, and all you have to do is keep your opinions to yourself. A Guy Fawkes Day bounty indeed. I don't know how someone got the idea that it was not only acceptable , but positively virtuous, to tell other people "here's how I think our government should be run. I know best, and I want to tell you all how to run your government." In normal life, that kind of behavior makes you a jerk. Modesty never hurt anybody.
Meanwhile, anything that begins "if you don't vote, you have no right to complain," or "people died for the right to vote" is beneath contempt.
posted by apk01004 at 2:27 AM
1 Comments:
Thank you.
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