I find myself regularly describing myself as a socialist. It's funny because it frequently results in a comparison with a supporter of Mao or Stalin which isn't at all what I mean.
In a democracy we have the right and the privilege to vote for what is best for us. I'm frankly shocked that any working person paid a salary would vote for someone who suggests giving the rich a tax break. The American dream is just that. A dream. Most folks will never have a chance to be more than a wage earner. Live with it and vote appropriately. You want protections of your ability to work. You want the right to work where you live. Vote as if it matters. Failing to vote is a failure of democracy.
He's alive! Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteNow, not being entirely contrarian, I really have less of an issue with those who CHOOSE not to vote, than for those who vote, but refuse to do the due diligence and vote uniformed.
It doesn't matter whether they agree with my own political perspective so much as they MUST move beyond picking the name or face that is familiar, or voting "against" somebody rather than "for" somebody, and into the realm of understanding the platform issues and raising voice in support of that which coincides with their own agenda.
The subject of political apathy (the disenfranchised), or gads, people WITHOUT a personal direction (and so therefore are blowing in the wind with no political relevance what-so-ever) is another situation altogether.
It's almost as if there's a tiering structure where those who have not the energy to make an informed decision, are determining the future for the Body purely on the mandate that "I must vote. People died for this right, I must do it - regardless of whether I have committed enough effort to really understand who/why I am voting for a certain candidate/party".
It almost makes Heinlein's perspective in Starship Troopers look valid. One must EARN the privilege of citizenship, although you can certainly be of the Body Populace without it.
Now, where did I put my breastplate and gladius? The barbarian hordes in the north are active again and I am called to defend Rome... =;^)
I like the "vote uniformed" part ;)
ReplyDeleteOne of the keystones of democracy is public education. If the public is not educated it's unreasonable to expect them to vote in an informed matter. Of course, public education is also used to indoctrinate the young in the culture of the nation state. But that's expected. It can be abused, but for example, teaching our youth to "Just say NO!" is good for the nation as a whole. Teaching them to blindly obey authority has resulted in horrors.
My daughter and I have spent hours lately discussing the nature of government and the structure of democracies since she's studying that in school. Perhaps, what we see today is a failure of the education system to ensure that graduates are citizens.
Actually, "voting" as we do it is a sham anyway.
ReplyDeleteWe aren't given the option to vote on issues, only on people. So, I do my due diligence, I find someone who appears to agree with at least some of the ideas I hold near and dear, and I pack them off to City Hall, or Edmonton or Ottawa.
Where they go about the daily business of "deciding things" with complete impunity from me - the one who put them there in the first place.
We don't live in a democracy, we live in some weird form of proxy republic. I get to vote once every four or five years for someone who promises to look after my best intersts in whatever manner their group is espousing at the time of the election. I give them my proxy to make decisions on my behalf.
If I'm lucky, enough people agreed with me that my proxy vote at least matters. If not, then my proxy voter loses, and I am worse than unrepresented. The winner can now claim to represent me "simple majority rules baby!" and will likely be voting in a manner directly opposed to my best intersts.
THAT level of disenfranchisement is what leads to "voting against" people or ideas as opposed to voting for positive things. People are just trying to protect themselves from the worst possible things happening to them...
Hah, this post generated some interest.
ReplyDeleteLet's see if next one does as well. Now that I appear to have inspiration again.
"Failing to vote is a failure of democracy."
ReplyDeleteDemocracy IS a failure. It's a tenth-rate system of government that had the good fortune to coexist simultaneously with some eleventh-rate systems of government and a rapid increase in technological advancement, then it asserted superiority by being better than the former and stealing credit from the latter.
If Democracy is your tenth rating system of government what are your first 9? It's hard to make an intelligent response when I don't know what you are comparing it to. I assume the eleventh rate is a monarchy.
ReplyDeleteDemocracy has coexisted with tribal governments, marxist, monarchies, theocracies, and many others.
I'm not fully convinced of the alternative to representative democracy, but am willing to be educated. Given that even the Chinese and Vietnamese Communist Parties are co-opting aspects of representative democracy (e.g. elections at the village level), it seems to have ongoing appeal.
ReplyDeleteDirect democracy, especially with voluntary voting, has no appeal to me. I forsee a situation where extremists manage to push through all sorts of bizarre and arbitrary measures that will totally mess with my life. It is often held up as an ideal, but in my opinion it would be an unmitigated disaster.