A reader writes in response to a recent piece:
Allan, you say: “And that is NOT to say that you should sit this one out. I have a special dislike for those of you who do that.” Please clarify. By “sit this one out” do you mean not vote in the 2024 U.S. Presidential election? Do you have a special dislike for those who refrain from voting for President?
-A Reader
This is a good question from this reader and one that stuck with me since I read it.
Weakness Attracts Thieves
You see, I live in the most prosperous state in the United States and it is being overrun by some really, really bad ideas. That is not because the ideas are better or because the population supports them. It is overwhelmingly because the people who have better ideas have been convinced to be silent.
In their silence they create an even greater vacuum that is filled with the absolute worst of voices. If you will let your pleasant, prosperous place be taken from you, then of course you will lose it. There will always be someone ready to take from him who is not diligent with his blessings.
Your Silence Attracts Worse
Yes. I am totally disgusted by people who do not vote. I am totally disgusted by people who in any part of their life welcome that vacuum of bad influence. I mean, we live in the midst of the greatest economic prosperity and freedom that the world has ever known. Perhaps it has been on the decline for the last decade, but it is still better than what almost all the rest of humanity in all periods and places has ever had.
What made you think there would not be people who would want to snatch that from you? What made you think that you didn’t need to put work into that?
It does not stop there, though. Your duty is not only to maintain it. Your duty is to leave your children even better. While that looks unlikely that my generation will pass on better than we have received, I am dedicated to doing exactly that and I hope you are too.
The “Too Cool To Help” Crowd
Truthfully, I do not hate anyone the way my provocative title claims I do. But there are a group of folks who know all about the process and who can’t be bothered to vote. They specifically come to mind, and some of my readers are not hearing anything new from me as I write this.
They’ve caucused in Iowa and have been to edgy political events like PorcFest or Anarchopulco. They know. But they don’t do. Voting is beyond them. They are too good for voting. They are too cool for voting.
Let me address some reasons why they are right to have that perspective, followed by some reasons why they mostly suck for having that perspective.
9 Reasons Not To Vote
Reason 1 — Numerical Improbability Of Impact — The truth of the matter is that in numerical terms, your lone vote will hardly ever matter. I get it. The probability is deeply against you mattering when you vote. Some people will even point out that it is proof of mathematic illiteracy to vote. And the more important the election, the less important the individual vote.
And at the same time, you never know until the election is over when your vote may have helped. Until the last few elections, in most localities, if you were a candidate, you couldn’t call in more votes at the last minute, the way the system now seems to work. And while federal elections are considered most important by many, I am of the opinion that local politics matters most.
Reason 2 — The Vote Is Rigged — another reason people don’t vote, is because they are convinced the vote is rigged. This is a really useful aspect of stealing an election: not only do you win, but you also demoralize the opposition. Anyone who gets demoralized about a stolen election deserves to lose. The proper response to getting one thing stolen from you isn’t to let all things be stolen from you. That’s stupid. You wouldn’t say “Oh no, they stole my VCR, woe is me. Now they might as well take my dough hook and my favorite 3-piece suit as well.” That would be preposterous. Yet that is how some people behave. The proper response is to maybe try to get that VCR back, to figure out what you did wrong that allowed it to happen, to remedy your shortcoming to never let that happen again, and to move onward ready to rebuild. Basically, that excuse for not voting sucks.
Reason 3 — Guilt About Worthiness — Also, if you are 90% of Americans, I probably could make an argument for why you shouldn’t even be able to vote. In my ideal world, I would like a lot fewer people to have the right to vote. I’d like to imagine some Americans feel unworthy to vote, and appropriately so, but that would be a lie. They feel entitled to vote, and even entitled to laugh at the idea of voting. Others say we need online voting or a national holiday. No, Sir. I don’t want more uninvested people voting to loot from their countrymen. I want no such thing. I want the most invested voting to stop all the worst ideas. That probably means I want you more involved and having a louder voice. Not less involved.
In a truly limited government in which either candidate would follow the constitution and would represent their local population relatively as well as the next guy, a coin flip would work. That actually wouldn’t work for a number of reasons — most of all that the guy who would win is not as good as the guy who wouldn’t win. But instead we have this system in which the winner is the guy who can get the most people with control of votes to cast those votes. They don’t even have to be human or alive or born! That’s the way the system is increasingly panning out. That’s the busted busted broke nasty dirty voting system we have. The proper response is not to shirk from the duty of repairing it.
Reason 4 — Resource Intensive — elections take too much X and cost too much Y. You are right. They do. They could be a lot better. And if you wanted to change that, the way to do that is to become more involved, not to become less involved. Do something about it. The way, in the short term, to prevent your resources from being further taken is to do nothing about it and to not vote. This decision has far worse effects than you are likely to realize - both in the short term and long term. I will address those further.
Reason 5 — Impurity Of The System — When you interact with a system, the system impacts you. That inevitably happens. This is the “I’m a vestal virgin,” theory of not voting. People who interact with all kinds of far worse things in life are suddenly as pure as the freshly fallen snow when it comes to elections. They cuss like a sailor, haven’t been sober in a fortnight, licked a frog once to see if they’d get a buzz, and they expect me to believe that casting a ballot will somehow besmirch them. What a poor excuse.
Reason 6 — Voting is Violence — Some people claim voting is violence. I’m not opposed to just uses of violence. As I will elaborate upon shortly, I don’t just want you to vote. I want you to do everything in your power to peacefully shape your community around you, including voting. If that is “violence,” then so be it.
Reason 7 — Candidate Doesn’t Represent Me — If you take time and learn about the two (or more likely many more) candidates on the ballot, you are likely to be more represented by one than another. I’m not asking you to get involved in the idiotic partisan blood sport where everyone who isn’t on your team is evil and everyone on your team is a saint. I’m asking you to learn, decide, and act. Don’t say “The best of two evils,” as if you were somehow perfect. That kind of talk is some nihilist-inspired nonsense. One candidate is better and you know it. You have a private vote. You can tell the girls at the gym when they ask, “It’s none of your business, Sarah, Morgan, and Morgan!” So cut the coy act with me. You know one of them actually is better. You don’t have to drool over them or go to their rallies. I’m asking you to learn, decide, and act.
Some elections, the candidates are all pretty awful options. It’s true. BUT…There’s a limit to how many times you can say that without saying “And I’m partly to blame.” If the candidates are awful options on this ballot then learn, decide, and act, even if it’s not a great option. But vow to never allow this to happen again. Vow to always live in a community in which someone is running that you can get behind. That may take a lot of investment of time and money from you, but I think that is a far more diligent response than “I’m never voting again.” And slowly but surely the candidate on the ballot, if they run their campaigns right, start movements of multiple candidates and movements that go beyond just elections or beyond just government. If the candidates do not represent you, my response to you is that you need to be more involved in making sure your candidates represent you.
Reason 8 — Confusion About The Process — Some people can easily get confused about what can be a confusing process. They opt instead to avoid the process. Ever since the time that you were born, the excuse, “I don’t know how to do it,” has not worked. You are human. You are adaptable. You, at the age of 12 months or so, after almost two years of living with your body, finally learned how to balance a bunch of muscles bones and sinews with enough strength and precision for enough time to take your first step. It took you like 10,000 mess ups for that to happen. Maybe even 100,000 mess ups. Do you really expect me to let you get away with the cop out “It’s confusing?” And about something as stupid simple as voting? Sorry. If you can walk, write, or speak, I know this much about you — You’ve been through tougher and persevered, cupcake.
Reason 9 — Not Voting En Masse Nullifies Elections — Over the past several decades, I have had the joy of being involved in hundreds of elections in many states and several countries. During the 2004 Russian election, I was able to be an international election observer. Each country and locality of course has its own laws and policies. In Russia and a number of other countries, not voting can actually bring about the outcome of nullifying an election. That seldom works. Usually all you actually end up doing is to not vote, nullifying your own vote, while lots of other people still vote. Regardless, that’s no excuse in the US, where there is no such policy.
The Reality Of The Situation
For the time being, the immensely resource intensive method of voting that we have is the method of voting that we have. That’s how we choose people for office.
So, as much as I have all kinds of ideas about politics and ideals about how I’d like it to work, that’s not the era we live in. I must live in reality and convince you, dear likeminded person, to do the same. In doing so, one has the ability to amplify one’s impact in a free country.
The person who convinces as many of his opponent’s guys to stay home and gets as many of his guys as possible to vote is the guy who wins. And winning an election is a really easy process in a lot of ways.
The Important Punctuation Mark Of Voting — And 12 Other Things You Need To Do As Well
Voting is a punctuation mark on all kinds of other behavior. By itself it is pretty much worthless. So, I expect a lot more from you than just voting.
This is what I would like from you:
I’d like you to make your bed every morning. I’d like your home and family and personal life in relative order. Maybe the lawn could even be mowed. Nothing is perfect. But relative order would be ideal.
I’d like you to be not just voting every election. But I’d like you to vote as soon as the polls open on Election Day. I’d like you to vote in person. If you aren’t voting in person, I’d like you to be making some kind of strategic decision with how you vote, but mostly that stuff is not helpful.
From the perspective of the average citizen, what I am about to describe is likely way more impactful for a diligent citizen to engage in, than all those screwy games about when to vote — I’d like you to vote in person and when you do, I’d like you to make a note of what the polling place is like and how it is being handled. I’d like you to report to the county anything you see that you don’t like — a call from a voter is likely going to be enough to get a supervisor out there in under an hour to handle the matter. It will also log a record of displeasure. Always speak up when you see something you don’t like in the polling place — ideally stopping it, then make a record, then make a call when.
Isn’t that how a Karen acts? It sure is. Part of the Karen meme is to convince people that it is not cool to care about their own community. Part of the Karen meme is the dissolution of the American spirit, the attack on pride of community. There are limits to that kind of behavior, but let me tell you: we are a long, long way away from diligent application of just principles by regular folks. We are verging on tyranny by the least ethical. Unless you are ready to just pack up and give up, I want you to retake ground for your values — in every area of life, even in elections.
If you are there when the polls open, you may even be in the room before the doors open and may be able to watch the opening process — the basic right of a person in almost every locality I have ever been in. Ask to see the zeroed out ballot counter or the empty ballot box before the seal is placed on it.
You might imagine some kind of smoking gun situation that you stop. But seldom is that likely to happen. More likely is negligence that needs correction and the negligence is likely only to be spotted after you’ve been around the elections a significant amount of time and can see what looks right and what looks wrong. So, allow me to keep explaining more about how I want you to not only vote this election but so much more.
I would like you to know every poll worker by name and to know who the regulars are who work your local polling place. To know the regulars would require you to behave this way each election, repeatedly, for years. This is as simple as talking to them as they are checking you in. They know your name. They know your address. They see your signature. Don’t be bashful talking to them. This is civic life. This is public life. This is how this stuff works. You can make it real official, but you could also make it cool and calm, just like small talk with anyone else.
I’d like you to ask questions of them like “What part of town are you from?” or “Where did you come in from today?” or extend your hand and say, “It’s good to meet you, what’s your name?” and “I haven’t noticed you in this area before?” or “Where did your children go to high school?” or even “Where do you go to church?”
These are presumptive questions, intrusive questions, and that person working the polling place is your public servant. It behooves you to get in the habit of asking those kinds of questions to your public servants. Asking that kind of question helps you to train yourself to remember who is in charge and it helps your public servants remember the same.
“I don’t want to be rude,” you might tell me. My friend it is a late hour. Asking a few biographical questions as you greet the person entrusted with your local elections is not rude. It is proper. It is how community works. It is how diligent people do things. What I’m describing is the rebuilding of community.
Pausing To Reflect On 2020
As you find yourself challenging my judgment and saying things such as “This sounds hard, I prefer not to do anything, and still have all the benefits of living in a free society,” please allow me to pause and reflect on the most important year in a good long time.
Do you know how the 2020 election was stolen? I’ll tell you all you need to know: Some people stopped caring and other people realized they could take advantage of that. That is the stealing of the 2020 election in a nutshell.
I can’t give you every election theft scenario that might happen in advance. I can’t train you through every contingency. I can give you this though: in places where people are diligent about their community, their community tends to be run far more appropriately. That is true in many ways. Most of those ways are unpredictable. One such way is this — it gets a lot harder to steal an election with a few “Karens” caring about their community and keeping an eye on things.
If you have to be the stickler in the room, if you have to be the only one who ever seems to speak up, if you seem to always feel like you are the “Karen,” well, in this specific situation on behalf of myself and my progeny, let me thank you. Thank you for being a Karen and caring for things that truly matter.
I don’t expect you to stop election theft globally. I know that in your own community, in your own life, you can have a marked impact by simply caring and taking the process seriously — even if no one else does. Slowly, those around you will join you in stopping the decay and will come to follow you rather than following the lowest common denominator of behavior or following the path of least resistance.
I grew up in a place that turned into a path of least resistance place. You don’t want to live there. The decay catches up with you. The way to stop that is with little things such as these that I am describing. This voting thing is really just another fun form of civic engagement in which you hold your government accountable for the few minutes in which you are interacting with them. It’s not hard. It’s fun, especially if you make it so. And the effects of it ripple far beyond the polling place.
Now let’s take it further still.
I don’t just want you voting, I’d like you to either work the elections (for the county as a paid poll worker) or to be involved in some other capacity on Election Day, such as with a campaign that you care deeply about. Unless you are in a situation in life in which you can’t do that, I think that should be what is expected of you every single election — involvement in the process all day long.
Yes, of course that means you have to take off of work for that day. That is part of what it takes for the 2020s of the world to not happen.
The Message You Send To Yourself And Everyone Else On Election Day
Voting has a psychological impact on you. You are telling yourself you are fully invested and diligent, down to the smallest detail, even the detail in which you only have 1/39,000,000 of a say over a matter.
It has a psychological impact on others around you. It is enforcing to others that you care. That is seen by your children. That is seen by your spouse and your in-laws and your neighbors.
I live in a place in which some people deeply care and, again, I come from a place in which people stopped caring. You do not want to be part of the latter.
And I want more still. I want your elected officials to know who you are and what you are about. No more of this anonymous outsider crap. I want you to ask them hard questions in office and hard questions on the campaign trail. I want you to donate to the really good ones and volunteering on their campaign. A campaign donation says so much more than most forms of money. It is a vote of support. When you give you campaign donation to an elected official, tell him loudly and clearly, “I am giving this because of that stand you took on a specific issue (name the exact vote). I saw that day that you were a person of principle.” Imagine how much more a $50 check handed to a politician with a handshake and that message means than an anonymous $500 check. As someone who runs for office, I promise you the $50 check delivered that way means so much more.
For new candidates there is an especially important message as well. I want you telling them “I can only help you if you promise to keep running. I can’t waste my time supporting someone who is only in this for one election, since seldom will that person win or have any impact. I need you to fight and keep fighting until you win.” That is decades worth of experience speaking. If you drill that into a candidate’s head, that candidate will be so much more successful in creating ethical political change. A campaign needs to be part of a lifelong effort, not a short term burst.
Consider Ignoring Everything I’ve Said Under The Following Circumstances
If you are a total degenerate, I hope you’ll ignore everything I’ve read. Go smoke more crack. Everything will be okay. If that doesn’t describe you, then I’d like to enlist your help.
2020 Was Created By Years Of Decay — Both The Stolen Elections And The Covid Nonsense
Every part of your community needs to be open to you and influenced by you. That’s the reality. It’s not only the stolen election of 2020 that was brought about by that lack of involvement, it was the health mandates of 2020 too.
And when we wanted to stand up and say “No more,” a lot of us suddenly realized that we had not stood up in a few decades.
Since 9/11, when government told us all to go to our bedrooms and that they had this under control, since 9/11, not many of us have been used to standing up. We’ve forgotten what community means — both the good and the bad of it. We’ve forgotten what it means to be invested in a place.
Americans who died 50 years ago would not recognize America today.
It’s not the techie stuff that would be foreign to them, nor the prosperity. It would be weird, but they had science fiction, before miserable dystopian depictions of the future became the norm, so they would kind of recognize things. No, technology and prosperity wouldn’t be too weird to them.
It is the sheer lack of human interaction and connectedness that would freak them out. Even the most interconnected among us would look like zombies to them, as so much of our day is spent removed from face to face interactions.
More is needed. Being diligent about voting is the least of it. Start there. Vote this year. Vote in all the contests at every level. And do more.
-Allan Stevo
Our community just voted down a $2.50/$1000 school levy. Yay! By the way, our small town rural school superintendent makes $330K+ per year.
“And the more important the election, the less important the individual vote.”
Well, as you go on to say, local elections matter most and are decided by smaller overall numbers of votes. A school board election candidate (a better one than the one chosen) lost here by about 20 votes.
So the more important local elections, the more important the individual vote.