Recently, my mother voiced her disappointment in me because I didn’t register to vote. Now, I didn’t register due to some strong hatred of the political process, but moreso due to pure laziness.
Naturally, some people have asked who I’m going to vote for, or what party I registered with, or if I even registered before. When they realized I haven’t even registered, they spew off the typical “if you don’t vote, you can’t complain!” Usually I refer to Carlin on this where he humorously states:
Now, using a comedian’s antics as a main reply to anti-voting arguments typically is not the best idea, so I also refer to the “none of the above” argument. Honestly, there are so few politicians that even come close to any sort of beliefs I carry, and even less during state-wide elections (I don’t think are even any libertarians running this election cycle in Massachusetts). So what is the point in voting? I sure as won’t vote for the “lesser of two evils” or drive up to the elementary school just to write in Mickey Mouse or Ron Paul!
But someone brought up the point that while Federal and State level elections are pretty bad, locally is where it counts, and I somewhat agree with this. They specifically used the example of voting for repeals or acceptance of new laws. For example on this cycle’s ballot, there’s a proposition to lower the state sales tax from 6.25% to something like 3%.
Basically, I’m wondering how you all deal with the annoying “blehh you have to vote, it’s your obligation, your right, etc.”
I’m also interested in getting “Democracy: The God that Failed” and “The Myth of the Rational Voter” sometime. Should be interesting!
I don’t know who to vote for this November for my Senator. There’s a libertarian candidate I like, but I don’t want to vote for him because that’s like me deciding specifically not to vote for the current Republican, who, even though I don’t agree with 100%, isn’t too much of a threat. And he supports Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve.
I have neither an obligation nor a legitimate right to ‘delegate’ powers to men which I myself do not possess.
If I am not entitled to murder people, then I cannot delegate the power to murder people to others. If I am not entitled to steal from others, then I cannot delegate this power to others.
For some reason the non-voting topic has really caught on to me. I feel like it really underscores the basics of libertarian philosophy. When you reject the legitimacy of voting and democracy, I think you’re really “got it” in terms on libertarian beliefs.