I like Rockwell and have always been a Sobran fan, but… I don’t know that the “mandate” is that important.
Lets look at it this way: If a small number of people were coming at you with guns, would you pull out a gun of your own in defense or would you hope that they realize that their threat of violence is not legitimate because you don’t own (or use) a weapon?
Voting legitimizes the evils of government. If no person voted, the ruling class would not be able to claim that their actions are based “on the will of the people”. I am always amazed at the response I receive when I state that I do not vote. The typical response: “You don’t have a right to complain”. I disagree. In fact, I have more of a right to complain because I did not consent to the evil that is government.
I think of it this way: It is akin to handing a thief the key to your home, then getting pissed off when he robs you.
Well, given that half of the viable population DOESN’T vote, the state should not be claiming that it is legitimate “by the will of the people” yet it does, and everyone believes them.
You are exactly right. Since just a subset of the voting population votes, the state extrapolates that into the myth that a “majority” voted in an attempt to gain legitimacy. Of course, some people believe it because it is the government, so it must be true.
“legitimacy” That’s a core issue. [Y][:D]
That analogy doesn’t work because voting is so ineffective; a single vote is pretty much useless. It’s akin to defending youself with toothpicks. Also, my position is not that we should not vote and do nothing. Rather, I believe we should abstain from voting and vigorously pursue apolitical strategies, such as education, microsecession, agorism, etc. Voting is a weak method of defense; we can defend ourselves much better using other strategies.
See my arguments against voting here. I don’t think that voting is immoral; it’s purely a strategic issue. In the end, I think the benefits of not voting marginally outweigh the costs of voting, and that these benefits are mostly personal and psychological. In my case, it was the argument that not voting delegitimizes government that convinced me of non-voting. To paraphrase Rush, if you choose not to vote, you still have cast a vote, viz. against democracy itself.
A single vote is indeed pretty much useless. But I’m not thinking of a single vote; I’m thinking of thousands/millions of votes. You can’t get those votes if you don’t advocate voting. You have to lead by your own example, too. But apolitical strategies are likely going to be much more effective.