earlier tonight, Chris Lyspooner made the statement "Voting is an act that supports individuals using a facade of special powers to write legislation to use guns to take away my rights . Why do you want to point a gun at my head asshole ?"
I feel that this is accurate most of the time. however, in some (perhaps all) states and localities, there are ballot initiatives to undo such mistakes, such as the recent recalls of anti-gun legislators in Colorado, and a chance to vote against new taxes, as has happened several times since I moved to Sonoma County, California. I also believe that a candidate for office who is good, if imperfect, makes a good case to vote for him (Gary Johnson or Ron Paul) than to refrain from voting and let a known evil entity such as Romney or Obama take office. Gary and Ron both pledged to balance the budget immediately, not 30 years down the road, and both are strong Second Amendment advocates. that right there puts them on the opposite pole to the other two cats, even if they're all statists in the final analysis.
however, the anti-voters shouted me down (figuratively), still implying that my vote was holding a gun to their heads. I skimmed the top 3 Google hits for "voting is immoral" at Mises Institute, at C4SS, and at LRC, and saw nothing directly related to these scenarios. the anti-vote literature is aimed at those using the state as a hammer to pound the "other guys" into submission to one's pet project or idea. I'm advocating using the vote when you can damage the system itself. shouting past each other never helps. if I could free myself from the hour or two of drudgery every year, reading all the stuff on the absentee ballot and looking to see if any candidates are something less than evil, I would gladly do so. but I need more reason than "stop pointing a gun at me!", because I'm not. and I'm only interested in things that I can do to make a difference, not in things that I need to convince others to cooperate with. my vote against a new hammer or to revoke an old one, assuming it's counted (never a surety) is one of those things.
last updated 2014-01-05 02:12:33. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com