IPFS
Bob Ross
More About: Voting - Election IntegrityWhen Nonviolent Resistance Becomes a Sin Greater Than War
It is Voter Registration Day as I
type this, and some of my favorite bands, family members, and friends are
feverishly posting about our duty to get registered and participate in this “democracy.”
Never mind that this is a republic, and that the founders themselves were some
of the biggest advocates of withdrawing your consent from a government that
fails to protect its people and actually uses its power against them in many
ways. This topic has weighed heavily on my mind, and I must address it to come
to terms with what people are actually advocating. I hope this will not be seen
as an attack, but rather a wake-up call to a reality that has been turned on
its head. I understand that election year is the most polarizing time for this
country, but realize that I must expose the fallacy of voting for what it
really has become.
Voting is a topic that is very emotional for
most people, and over the past few weeks I have had varied discussions on the
matter and been told in several ways what I deserve for not voting. Election
years have always been a specimen that I am fascinated by as logic seems to
diminish and emotions replace it completely. I get it, and I want to believe
that voting can change a system that is rife with corruption and voter fraud. I
want to believe that there is at least one candidate out there who has the best
interests of the people in mind. I want to believe I live in the greatest country
in the world, and that these politicians genuinely want to help us by helping
other nations. My heart used to believe in a world made better by our country’s
foreign policy and numerous interventions and that consequences of these things
are just an ungrateful response by a sheltered populace. Well, the heart is
deceitful above all things.
Conversely, the reality of our
situation is obscured by catch phrases and rhetoric designed to appeal to your
emotions. We must face the truth of how our actions affect the well-being of
not only people overseas, but our fellow people. There is no savior coming in
the form of a politician to save us, the wars will not end they will only grow,
the Fed will only keep printing money, the surveillance state will expand, and
all these truths will happen no matter who gets elected. These are the facts
based on history, economics, and the government’s own documents and press
releases. Call me a heretic, but I cannot sacrifice my principles for the
lesser of two evils.
As a former Ron Paul supporter,
Romney fans have urged me to vote for their candidate because a vote for a
third party candidate or for nobody is a vote for Obama. The absurdity of this
statement would be funny if it weren’t so logically unsound and factually
incorrect. It makes so little sense that to give credibility to the thought is
silly and immature. You see, the psychology of election year is interesting as
the worst of both parties come out in full gear. I have been told by
republicans (the supposedly more morally upright of the two) that I must vote
for Romney or basically I will be responsible for the end of America as we know
it, and that voting is the reason our troops are dying overseas---it’s all for
our freedom and if I don’t vote I don’t have the RIGHT to complain. Romney, a
man who personally profited
off of the disposal of aborted children and who has a suspicious tax history,
is somehow less evil than the president. Okay. So, if we can’t trust what
politicians tell us, what makes us think that they will keep their promises? It
appears history has more than a few examples validating the accuracy of that
statement.
I get vilified equally by the democrats,
and if possible they are the ones using ad hominem attacks even more so than
their republican counterparts. In the past month and a half I have been called
by Obama supporters racist, sexist, a hippie, and---my personal favorite---an
advocate for child labor. All of these attacks because I refuse to be
collectivized into the popular “woman voter demographic.” Yes, everyone, I hate
women because I want to see them live in countries that are in the unfortunate
location of being on top of our oil or perhaps in countries that want to God
forbid use a currency other than our fiat paper junk they call the petrodollar.
Over and over again, every
discussion I have with an Obama or Romney supporter ends with, “Well, I don’t
agree with him on everything, but he is the lesser of two evils.” I have
watched as my poor friends who support Gary Johnson get attacked because they
have the audacity to vote their conscience in a symbolic stance against the
flawed two party system. Yes, voting for someone who appears to lack traits of
a sociopath is somehow heinous and un-American. Well if that’s the
understanding of the majority of people voting, I am happy to declare myself a traveller
on this land and not one of its own.
Is it not logical to conclude that if the
current system fails to remedy the many injustices brought upon its people and
the thousands of others overseas that maybe; just maybe, it might be beneficial
to try something new? Many people have qualms about the hypocrisy of our
founding fathers, me included, but one point that resonates with me is their
determination to be free even if it means the attainment of that freedom is
inconvenient. We have the right to withdraw our consent from the war machine,
and two hundred years ago this was seem as admirable and legitimate. Now, I am
demonized for quoting the very document that is referenced as proof of America’s
“exceptionalism.”
I have been amazed with the
ignorance of history, foreign policy, and basic economics both sides have, and
their inability to accept basic facts about the stances and more importantly
the actions of their preferred candidate. When decent people refuse to
participate in a rigged system with immoral candidates, they are demonized;
when they vote for the lesser of two evils, they are doing their patriotic
duty! But perpetuating an immoral and inefficient system is not just unfair, it
is wrong, it is evil, and at its core is one of the most unethical things we
can do to future generations. Voting in the place of real activism is revered,
but it is truly lazy and intellectually dishonest when compared to what people
are actually doing in place of this trite effort.
Do you ever stop to think that the
reason we are in a state of disrepair is because we keep voting for liars,
hypocrites, adulterers, and thieves? That advocating violence against others in
the form of legislation or wars is detrimental to not only the victims, but the
souls of the perpetrators? That you, as a person who participates by voting, gives
credence to the very system designed to oppress others, even those who would
work together with you for the common good? Is it right to support a candidate
whose solution to our problems include more wars that kill innocent women and
children and destroy the economies and infrastructure for decades to come? Why
am I the one who is a “hippie with no solutions only problems” when I point out
the inconsistencies in logic to Obama (funny thing is I hear that from the
lefties more than the Romneyites) or Romney supporters and provide alternative
solutions?
Yes, I have a problem with the mass
murder and plundering of innocent people near and far for dubious reasons. And
you should too. It speaks volumes of the moral decay of the people in this
country when murder is justified with the same reasoning by the very people
using the same arguments against the last president. Have our hearts been so
hardened and our brains so numbed to reason that participating in this now so
obviously rigged system is seen as admirable while opposing evil is seen as the
embodiment of it? Voting for the lesser of two evils is how we wind up with an
evil government. It really is as plain as day, and the more we vote for evil
the more evil we will get, the more evil candidates will rise up and be placed
in positions of power, the more voter fraud will ruin any chance of any
legitimate candidate making it through the primaries. The leaders we get are a
reflection of our own internal inconsistencies, and that’s not to say I am not
without flaw, but they do reflect the mindset of the active electorate that
plays the voting game.
If your political ideology is worth more to
you than your conscience and morals, then you are the problem. You are what is
wrong with this country, and you are responsible for the outcome of the actions
of whoever gets elected because you have given credence to a system designed to
fail you and your fellow man. You participated in allowing evil to continue its
reign as you tried to justify your behavior, but you know deep down that there’s
only one thing voting for evil will get you. So go ahead keep ignoring that
cognitive dissonance, keep believing blindly in what you are told by your candidate
and your mainstream media, keep thinking it is your duty to use your vote to
suppress the rights of others, keep closing your ears to the truth, but know
that there are not enough earmuffs in the world to quell the howls of a mother
whose child has been killed for “humanitarian” reasons because you refused to
stand up for what is right. When others suffer immeasurably from this country’s
policies, we view it as foreign and far away; something that will never happen
here. We don’t think that it will happen to us, and that the reasons for war
are so complicated that it is beyond our understanding, so our leaders must be
in the know and working off of their superior knowledge. Those people in the
Middle East and Africa are our fellow humans trying to live their lives in
peace and safety, and your vote legitimizes the very system that is trying to
kill them and take their resources. I have heard every argument for voting as
it has been repeated ad nauseum to me
my entire life especially around this time of year, and nothing has convinced
me that sacrificing my morality for patriotism, nationalism, “women’s rights,”
or any other contrived reason is worth it. I know where I stand, and it is on
the side of truth, reason, and history.
It’s not an issue of who will do
less damage to us; the real issue is why we keep supporting the same crooks and
policies that got us into these situations in the first place. So, call me a
racist or an anarchist or whatever makes you feel better about supporting evil. I will sleep with a sound conscience,
though, and know that my non-action has more moral fiber than all the
justifications in the world for voting. When voting leads to immoral outcomes,
we must reject it as a way of solving our problems lest we find ourselves in
the dustbin of history.
Changing our actions to err on the side of morality is the only way
we are going to turn things around, not changing our morality to err on the
side of political ideology. I reject what this country has become, and I reject
the methods that have caused it. My consent has been withdrawn, and quite
frankly there is nothing that can change that because my focus is on creating a
better future independent of the trappings of politics and fiat currency. I
hope you will join me, and be on the right side of history. Non-action is as useful
as action when making a point and it is not those who do not act that are to
blame; it is those who willingly act in spite of the knowledge that is freely
available to them. Don’t mistake my non-participation in this scheme for
inaction, though, I have been very active in other projects with the end goal
of real liberty and justice for all. Voting is the least efficient way to
affect change, and if you are interested in reading more about my approaches
feel free to contact me and maybe we can collaborate on something positive.
3 Comments in Response to When Nonviolent Resistance Becomes a Sin Greater Than War
Well said. I've even gone on to conclude, through my observations and reserch, that thus far we have yet to produce a political system that can work. Harry Browne's book, Why Government Doesn't Work made me look into this with great detail and the result's make it pretty obvious. Then add in what the oligarchy will do to maintain control. Our founding fathers obviously did not get it right and guys like Franklin knew deep down, it might not work. Politics is a distraction to keep the majority away from where the real law is created, the courtroom and until we limit govenrment control over the judicary, you will see no substantive progress towards liberty, except in those periods after the masses grab their guns and start shooting back and that only lasts a few decades.
I am totally with you on this. I am so disappointed with where this country has gone that I can't even contemplate voting. I too have heard the "lesser of two evils" line from both sides. Both candidates stand for the same thing as far as I can see. Obama had a chance to roll back the worst of Bush's policies crushing our constitutional rights and instead, he made them worse. If anything he is even worse than Romney because he convinced us he was different and gave us hope. I feel like the jilted lover who has been lied to and cheated on. I'm done with Obama and I'm not even considering Romney. My 97 year old mother said this is the most afraid she has ever been for our country in her entire life. Me too. My college age kids...what a mess we are giving them.