i’ve said this sort of thing a few times on twitter:
this is a response to the cute maxim that if you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain about how politics, or the state or whatever other iteration of politics, affects you. symbolically, the act of voting is fetishized until it becomes an opaque blanket wrapped around the good and true citizen — everything is excused so long as one performs this ritual act of civics.
this feels wrong.
if voting, as such, is an unmitigated good (it’s not — cf people voting for trump), and a required act in order to hold, or at least voice, any opinion about civic life (that is, living in the world at all), then let’s look at how not voting happens.
obviously, some people don’t vote because they’re too wrapped up in finishing ‘stranger things’ to be bothered to go outside. i’m going to assume (i think rightly) that the number of actually completely passively disinterested people not voting is a very small percentage of those who don’t vote. however, this not-voter is the primary assumption of the must-vote adherents. it’s a necessary fabrication, because it’s tied into the american ethic that work is good and leisure is bad, and if not-voting is lazy, then voting is virtuous and hey, the voter is getting into heaven.
it’s still a fabrication though. the reasons that people aren’t voting are both serious and seriously moral. the most important on the list are the millions of people who can no longer vote because they’ve been stripped of that right by the criminal justice system, and the millions of legally-able-to-vote people who are otherwise disenfranchised by legislative and procedural tricks of politicians and parties who would prefer certain people not vote — a de facto disenfranchisement. each of these not-voting blocs is enough to implicate the entire exercise as dubious; the consequences to our civic life that comes from this kind of marginalization can be seen in both obvious and subtle ways. in some ways, whether or not it’s explicitly expressed, i see a lot of congruity of cause between voting rights for the disenfranchised and #blacklivesmatter.
not-voting may be an act of civil disobedience, insofar as not-voting is clearly presented as a transgression against the natural order of democracy. but sometimes transgression is necessary, if only to make more distinct the complicity of those who are voting. you may think it’s merely a matter of holding your nose when you vote for a candidate with whom you have ideological disagreements. i might find those compromises impossible to make, in which case, how can i, a responsible citizen, actually vote for that candidate and still call myself responsible? this isn’t theoretical: i am anti-war and anti-military. how can i vote for any candidate who has stated to be otherwise?
i’m not too impressed with the civil disobedience angle (though it’s valuable and true), because it falls into the same fetish trap as those who insist on voting. my not-vote probably counts for about as much as a vote does, in terms of capability of ‘sending a message’. we can see very clearly how much a message is worth if we examine the phenomenon of the ‘political mandate’. a candidate who receives a large percentage of votes cast is said to have a mandate, a holy directive from the people. but it’s only those people who have voted — not-votes are not counted. further, what would happen to the importance of mandate if we required a minimum percentage of participation — say, if 75% of citizens do not vote, new candidates must be presented and elections begin again? what if we require a constant state of mandate? (i’m not suggesting we require voting here — only that election results be contingent on participation.) the point is that from a politician’s point of view, voting becomes laudable only insofar as it grants them the ‘mandate’, but no one is stepping down because they didn’t get enough votes (participation) to justify their election.
https://twitter.com/superhayo/status/760523453979955201
so i performed some voting today. it felt a little strange because it felt a little like a lie i would have to explain (which is what i guess i’m doing here). i got the sticker, but i’m not wearing it. i stared at the ballot and looked at the choices. some of the races i actually do care about the results. it’s local stuff, and the difference between the candidates, even within the party, is real. but i didn’t vote for anyone today.
part of it is that i wanted to see if i had the spine to do it. the idea of democracy is pretty ingrained in my head, and i’m susceptible to the same fallacies and ideologies that i’m critiquing. we’re all in this shit over our heads, and no one is exempt.
on the other hand, my democracy is not built by the rules of power, or those who want more of it. i believe in solidarity with the marginalized, the poor and the disenfranchised. i believe in building a more horizontally-organized society (thanks streetfight) where power is constantly overturned, the forever revolution. how can i honestly stand in solidarity with the powerless at the same time that i’m giving legitimacy to the system that makes them powerless? what are we really doing when we’re voting?
