If you vote you might get what you want.

If you vote, you might get what you want. But if you don’t vote, you definitely will get what other people want.

Today, I heard a Public Broadcasting radio show where young people of voting age were asked why they planned not to vote.

It wasn’t a survey, of course. Only a handful answered. But those answers were interesting.

The students described themselves as some combination of black, brown, gay, female, libertarian, poor, poorly educated, and/or immigrant.

Paraphrasing their answers:

1. “I don’t see many people like me in Congress.”
2. “Both parties are bad.”
3. “They made it too hard to vote
4. “My vote doesn’t matter.”
5. “They promise to [cut global warming, lower my taxes, support the poor, build a wall, etc.] but don’t do it.”

1. I don’t see many people like me in Congress.” The natural tendency is for people to vote for people who are like them. Blacks tend to vote for blacks, Cubans for Cubans, Jews for Jews, Texans for Texans, women for women, gays for gays, etc.

I say “tend” because there are massive exceptions. But generally, people believe that people who look like them or are in similar situations also will think like them and vote like them.

It’s almost like fandom. If born in Chicago, you tend to be a Bears fan. And each year, you believe the team will be good.

Then comes the surprise. The Bears stink, and Clarence Thomas, who has spent his life trying to demonstrate he really isn’t black, proves to be no friend of blacks. 

The exceptions that prove the rule are all around us. By that rule, Donald Trump and the entire Republican party should receive votes only from white Protestant supremacists. He has demonstrated his loathing for every other group. Yet he received 70+million votes in the past election.

Did all those blacks, browns, yellows, reds, women, gays, Jews, Muslims, immigrants, Mexicans, and people from Central and South America, really not know what he has said about them?

Sadly, those kids who won’t vote, and are waiting for someone like them, seldom will see anyone like them because they don’t vote. If you aren’t considered a serious voter, the political parties won’t put up people like you as candidates.

If you vote, you might get what you want. But if you don’t vote, you definitely will get what other people want.

2. “Both parties are bad.” This generally comes from people who don’t pay much attention to the news and have only a vague idea about what is happening.

Yes, if you are looking for absolute honesty from someone who always agrees with you, both parties are bad. And if you’re waiting for the perfect woman, who always agrees with you, you will stay unmarried and should consider buying a Sheltie. 

People are not perfect. People have flaws, politicians as much as anyone. Maybe more. But if your reason for not voting is you’re waiting for absolute truth and perfection, you simply have adopted a convenient excuse for laziness. 

The logical thing is to hold your nose and vote for the lesser evil. Before that, you might try to read and find out what each party and each candidate really stands for.

If you vote, you might get what you want. But if you don’t vote, you definitely will get what other people want.

3. “They made it too hard to vote.” You have my sympathy if you live in a red state and are black. They are doing everything possible to disenfranchise you.

But election results matter. The winners will control much of your future for 2, 4, or 6 years and beyond.

You work hard for many hours to give yourself and your family a chance for a decent life. Maybe you’ll get it, and perhaps you won’t. But you risk the time and the effort for the possibility.

It’s worth spending part of one day casting your vote to increase the possibility that your candidate will help you to a better life, or at least won’t take away the life you have. 

If you’re a woman who might one day need an abortion, you know what I mean.

If you vote, you might get what you want. But if you don’t vote, you definitely will get what other people want.

 

4. “My vote doesn’t matter.” Odds are, your individual vote doesn’t matter. That’s mathematics.

If you give to charity, your contribution doesn’t matter unless you’re giving millions. So why do you give $10 to a charity that collects millions and wouldn’t notice whether you gave or not? Or to a candidate who collects millions, doesn’t need your contribution, and may not even win? 

You do things not because you expect a reward or effect but because you’re part of a community. You help a stranger who asks for directions. You give to a trick-or-treater. You drop money into the bell ringer’s kettle. You help an elderly person carry a package. 

You phone a sick friend. You pick up a scrap of paper and throw it in a trash can. You drop a toy into the collection box, not knowing whether a kid will appreciate it.

You brush snow off your neighbor’s car without telling him. You write a good evaluation of a waitress, anonymously. 

You do things because you know they are the right things to do, and it makes you feel good to be a positive force, however small.

Your voting could influence others to vote. And if all those people, who felt their individual vote didn’t matter, suddenly followed your lead and voted, you would find yourself part of a vast, difference-making movement that elects someone you prefer.

If you vote, you might get what you want. But if you don’t vote, you definitely will get what other people want.

5. “They promise to [cut global warming, lower my taxes, support the poor, build a wall, etc.] but don’t do it.”

That’s politics. Good politics. Because if one person, or even one political party, could do everything it promises or wants to do, we would call that a dictatorship.

Instead of bemoaning the failure of promises, ask yourself, “Which party, or which candidate, is most likely to try to do what I want?”

If you feel global warming is of prime concern, which party or candidate is more likely to do something about it? Who is more likely to lower your taxes, support the poor, build a wall, or legalize abortion?

Given that all politicians lie, which ones are less addicted to lying?

Adding your vote demonstrates to both parties which issues are most likely to garner votes.

So if you don’t really care about your future, your family’s future, America’s or the world’s future, don’t vote. When someone complains about the government, I always ask, “Did you vote?”

My feeling is if you don’t vote, don’t complain about the situation. If you don’t care enough to vote, why should anyone care about your complaint?

If you vote, you might get what you want. But if you don’t vote, you definitely will get what other people want.

 

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

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