WITH LESS than a month remaining until the 2004 presidential election, America is saturated with reminders that the most important, patriotic thing citizens can do is get out and vote. Everyone from P. Diddy to Isaac Mizrahi wants you to know that it doesn't matter for whom you cast your ballot as long as you exercise your franchise. Sadly, this couldn't be further from the truth. Perhaps the most politically savvy thing Americans can do this year is proudly abstain from voting for president.
There are many good reasons not to vote, perhaps the most obvious being that your vote doesn't matter. The simple fact is that no presidential election in history has come close to being decided by one vote. Add to that the nullifying effect the Electoral College has on the votes of non-Floridians and you can effectively eliminate "making a difference" from your list of reasons to get off the couch Nov. 2. Slate.com's Steven Landsburg shrewdly summed up the situation last week when he noted that the probability that you will have an effect on an election is roughly the same as the probability that you will be murdered by your mother.
But then pragmatism has never been particularly popular in politics.
Rather, the impetus behind the drive to increase voter turnout is far more ideological than practical. Many advocates recognize their individual vote is impotent but believe that by collective action they and their peers can make a difference. Still more believe that voting is an integral part of social consciousness and that not voting demonstrates a lack of patriotic participation and weakens one of the most important institutions in American government.
While there are many interesting arguments for participating in the presidential election process, they all fail to recognize that making the informed decision not to vote is a viable option. Popular opinion dictates that it is better to vote for a candidate, even one you disagree with, than to abstain from voting. Not only is this concept misguided, it is a major part of the rank partisan disease that has now completely perverted the American political system.
Political participation is not an obligation, as many would have us believe, but it is certainly a privilege of which any self-interested citizen ought to take advantage. However, voting is by no means synonymous with true political participation. The majority of voters go to the polls and cast their ballots strictly based on the party name affixed to each candidate's ticket. Still more vote based on the political whims of their parents, spouses or religious leaders, and return home proud of their patriotic contribution. And yet for some reason this blind contingent is judged more astute than those who review candidates' positions and decide no contender represents their best interest.
Today America has come to accept the twisted notion that an extremely limited slate of candidates is a legitimate embodiment of representative democracy. Despite the fact that polls repeatedly report that over half the populace is dissatisfied with their political options, voting for the "lesser of two evils" is tacitly accepted as the status quo. Not only is this idea illogical, it is flat-out un-American.
Our electoral system was specifically designed to allow citizens to choose from among their peers delegates that stand up for their interests, but the modern two-party system bars any potential candidate who does not conform to an arbitrary set of preordained allegiances, effectively preventing any kind of true representation. A system that once facilitated competition between multiple candidates and multiple parties is today so undemocratic that Ralph Nader, a candidate with a proven following, was prevented from entering the race in many states.
Voting is not meant to be an act of submission. By casting your ballot, you should be affirming a candidate that represents you and your interests. If no candidate does so, it is completely logical not to vote.
No political participant ought to plan to abstain from voting forever. But if the large percentage of Americans who are not represented by the Democratic or Republican parties were to redirect their political and financial support to new parties that embody their interests, the two-party system would crumble and we would witness a healthy surge of competition between truly representative politicians worthy of our votes.
So this year, as MTV attempts to brainwash yet another generation and indoctrinate them into the false world of meaningless partisan polarization, remember what your vote really stands for, and don't believe the hype. The world will not end if you abstain for voting. In fact, the same pompous, two-faced idiot will be elected even if you and your 100 closest friends choose to stay home and have a beer.
It is high time that we break free of the bad air enshrouding American politics, perpetuated only by our own complacency. This year, when considering the meager options set before you, thoroughly examine each candidate. If Bush or Kerry truly represents your interests, enfranchise them with your vote. Give the third parties equal consideration. But if no candidate honestly represents you, do not succumb to perverted social convention. Exercise your right as a freethinking American individual and don't vote.
Nick Chapin's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at nchapin@cavalierdaily.com.
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