A Rational Choice for Election Day
Butler Shaffer at LewRockwell.com - a reprint of Mr. Shaffer's 2004 article. Change "Bush" to "McCain" and "Kerry" to "Obama", and it's just as relevant today as it was during the last tyrant coronation. [lew]
I can recall no time during my years on this planet when a presidential election has had less significance than this one. I know this statement flies in the face of the hyperbolic rhetoric engaged in, by Republocratic party drum-beaters, as they induce you to part company with your innate intelligence by joining the chuckleheads in a mad dash to the voting booths. The little stickers that read "I voted" -- worn so proudly by those wishing to confirm their allegiance to the system that is destroying their lives -- reminds me of the "kick me" signs teenagers used to tape onto the backs of their fellow students.
This year marks my fortieth anniversary of not voting. Most of my colleagues attribute my non-participation to "apathy" or "protest," neither of which explains my refusal to dance the lemming two-step. I don't vote for the same reason I don't rob banks or molest children: it is not the way I choose to live my life. I am not "apathetic" about not victimizing others: to the contrary, I insist upon such a trait. My entire sense of being is incompatible with coercing others. I can no more hide my ambitions over your life or property within the secret confines of a voting booth than I could confront my neighbor with a gun and demand his money. Voting is nothing more than a periodic public affirmation in the faith of systematic violence as a social system.