Posted on 10/20/2015 2:27:26 PM PDT by RKBA Democrat
reading this, you — you — can vote. Reading a strange bloggy rant about an election probably means you’re an engaged citizen, and you can make an informed and considered choice.
But exhorting the masses to go out and vote leads to poor choices made with bad information.
I’m tired of people wrapping themselves up in the self-satisfaction of a “Go vote” message, without actually putting themselves out there to explain why or how.
Garbage in, garbage out, as any old programmer will tell you. And telling people to “vote” without any direction or context as to why or how they should vote is giving them only garbage information. What do you think they’ll produce in the ballot box?
A poorly-informed voter, urged at every corner to “just vote, it doesn’t matter how” is likely to make their choice based on a gut feeling, or emotion, or habit, and not on a carefully thought-through conclusion.
That leads to some of the worst practices of current electioneering: pandering to voters’ base instincts by playing on their fears, micro-targeting their greed, and cultivating a general us-vs-them attitude.
All of these are proven to work — and they work better the less one pays attention. So, they work great in today’s busy society, where we are bombarded by snippets of information throughout the day, and never have time for much drawn-out investigation or debate.
The result? Many people will head to the ballot box exhausted by the election, yet still without having thought about their choice all that much. They’ll make a snap decision and vote for a candidate or a party that makes them feel good, or against a candidate or party that worries them, or just mark an X beside the party of candidate that they voted for last time.
The myth of the informed voter is as deeply ingrained as is Homo economicus. But it’s just not true.
Like in economics, people make political choices all the time that are irrational, delusional, emotional and just plain ill-informed. Telling them to “Just vote” and pretending that when they get behind the cardboard screen, they’ll make perfect choices is just as irrational, delusional, emotional and ill-informed.
So no, if you don’t feel like it, feel free to not vote.
Oh, that old chestnut: “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain”? Screw your sanctimony. Complaining is an excellent way of getting decision-makers to listen to you. Complaint — whether through writing letters, petitions, protests or just plain bitching on Twitter — is possibly a better method of producing change than voting.
In fact, complaining is one of the prime ways for political parties to pick which planks they’ll put in their platform, so by complaining, you get to help decide the choices those schmucks who vote have to pick from.
Don’t vote. Do complain.
And if you are telling people to get out and vote, then at least have the courage of your convictions to tell them how and why to pick a candidate.
I could write a whole ‘nuther post on that — there are clear choices between parties and candidates in this election, but those choices are a matter of degree, rather than anything else. We’re choosing between Coke and Pepsi, not between Coke and a lightbulb.
And if you’re in the dark, being guilted into a choice between Coke or Pepsi won’t help you one bit.
Good people not voting is exactly how we ended up with leftists destroying this Country; whether they call themselves republicants or dimocRats.
We must be loud, we must be heard, and we must vote!
Good people comfortable in the belief that voting alone can reform institutions corrupted over these past hundred years is how we ended up with Leftists destroying this country.
You’ll know a tree by it’s fruit. We got where we are today through a succession of elections.
Voting in the long run has gotten conservatives nothing. Actually it’s worse than that: we would be better off if we had chucked the whole thing after say 1988.
Don’t vote if you’re stupid.
What I liked about this article was that it suggested that there are other actions we can accomplish instead of voting that are likely to be more effective.
I think we’d accomplish more for our families and our country if we spent the time tending our gardens instead. At least we’d have some fresh tomatoes to show for it.
I agree that voting alone won’t cut it. We must be vocal and we must educate and we must get together and make it known what we stand for and who is with us. Silently sitting there listening to the media destroy the conservative image and then voting conservative won’t work. But short of a violent uprising, voting is what we must do.
What is your solution then? See my other post. Short of a violent uprising, what’s going to do it?
We can talk all day long, but if we don’t make our presence known and then vote for the conservative, we leave the nation and our local government to the wolves.
You want just one solution? That’s gonna be difficult......
Here are 49 things you can do to. None involve violence, none involve voting. I don’t agree with some of the ideas presented but it should get you thinking:
http://fee.org/freeman/fifty-ways-to-leave-leviathan/
And if that’s not enough here’s fifty more:
http://fee.org/freeman/50-more-ways-to-leave-leviathan/
Have fun.
Thanks for the links! I just did a quick once over, and will study more. Initially, nothing moves me from my position in the least. But, I am a reasonable and thinking man; I attempt to form a coherent opinions. So thanks for the thought material.
I agree with you, except for the first and last sentences.
This isn’t the first time our country has faced crisis as a result of crappy governance. Voting hasn’t been shown to be an effective solution. If it did, we wouldn’t find ourselves in the situation we’re in. Nor would the folks in 1860 or 1916 have found themselves in the situation they were in.
I vote, but not for every race.
This is a nonsense thread.
Vote. For someone.
Vote.
Always.
You’re unusual in that you’re willing to think. Keep in mind that none of these ideas exclude a political approach as well.
Your mileage may vary.
And you’re very welcome for the information.
Voting is utter nonsense. Or are you suggesting that an election in the last 30 years has accomplished something of lasting value? if so, please elaborate.
We’re not choosing between Coke or Pepsi. In the primaries, we’re choosing between hemlock or milk. In the general, after the MSM has dictated for ignorant Republicans how to vote in the primaries, we’re choosing between hemlock or cyanide.
Pretty much. I don’t see it playing out all that differently in 2016. It definitely won’t be any different here in VA for the elections in a few weeks. Very few contests where any candidate is worth the time to show up. Certainly not in my district.
So why waste the time when there are dishes to be washed and gardens to be watered?
This point has been made many times, even going back to the founding.
We tried to impress upon people the importance of knowing the issues and the people you vote for, making every effort to be educated prior to voting.
But the system has long ago been corrupted by the media.
That is a nonsense answer! It's always better to not vote if all you are doing is just voting for someone or "voting always" out of some misguided notion that participation is more important.
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