TOMORROW, our great nation will choose as its president one of two politicians who are remarkable only for the uninspiring pallor of sub-mediocrity that both of them exude. As a libertarian and an Orioles fan, I've come to see the Bush-Kerry contest in the same way I look at a playoff series between the Yankees and the Red Sox: The only good news to latch onto is that one of them will lose.
I get scoffed at a lot, but never more vigorously than when I tell people that I don't plan to cast a ballot in tomorrow's particularly depressing election. There are few attitudes more rabidly dogmatic than the prevailing sentiment that everyone should vote. But like most dogmas, this one has trouble withstanding scrutiny.
While it would be beyond the scope of a column to argue that you definitely shouldn't vote, it is crystal clear that the reasons that most people recite in favor of voting are completely nonsensical. In three simple points: You don't have a duty to vote, your right to complain about the president is not at all contingent upon the act of voting and your vote truly does not matter.
Taking the last of these topics first, there are few things that rankle people as much as the short and sweet phrase,"Your vote doesn't matter." Maybe it's because it makes people feel like they don't have control over their government (which they don't), or that they are somewhat helpless or unimportant in the political arena (which they are). But to avoid confusion and controversy, let me be completely unambiguous about what I mean: Whether or not you vote, or who you vote for, has virtually no chance of affecting the outcome of the presidential election. This is not an opinion or a conjecture, but an ironclad fact that can't and won't change under the weight of any denial.
Yes, voting is an aggregate process. Yes, the last election was very close (within a few hundred votes) in many states, especially Florida. Yes, it does therefore make a difference when large numbers (i.e. several hundreds or thousands) of people choose not to vote. Yes, the total aggregate of votes does ultimately determine who will be president. And yes, lots of people throughout history have struggled and sacrificed a great deal to ensure the right of universal suffrage. None of this changes the fact that your individual vote has an infinitesimally small, virtually nonexistent chance of swaying the election one way or another. So if you plan to vote tomorrow, it had better not be because you want to make a difference.
Another reason people give for voting embodies the loftier claim that each citizen has a duty to vote. This argument rests on two solid premises. First, democracy is important to impose some semblance of majoritarian accountability upon the government. Second, if nobody voted, our system of democracy wouldn't be able to function. Therefore, you'd better vote if you want our government to work. The only problem with this argument is that it is hopelessly invalid. Its conclusion simply doesn't follow.
With a parallel argument, you could support any number of silly ideas, such as the conclusion that everyone should be trained as a doctor. If our society didn't have doctors, after all, we would be in no small amount of trouble. The fact is, however, that lots of other people will become doctors, and so our health system thankfully doesn't require your individual effort in order to function. The same is true at the polls. Lots of people will vote, and our system of democracy will go on in exactly the same way, regardless of what you do on Election Day.
Finally, there's nothing more tired than the old cliché that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain. This saying might be more rhetorical than serious, but that doesn't make it any less idiotic. The right to criticize and bemoan the actions of moronic public officials is unconditional. If anything, it seems to me that voting puts you in a weaker position to complain, not a stronger one. After all, history suggests that whichever candidate gets elected is overwhelmingly likely to do all kinds of stupid things and cause all kinds of harm to millions of innocent people. If your guy wins, what do you have to complain about? You voted for him.
As for me, it's really not that I don't care about the political landscape of our country. I care a great deal, and it truly pains me to watch my government trample on people every day. But there's nothing I can do about it on Election Day, and I'd rather not soil my hands in a voting booth, pretending that there is.
Anthony Dick's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at adick@cavalierdaily.com.
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