Thursday, June 14, 2012

Non-Voters Have No Right to Complain? Hogwash!


We've all been told at one time or another, "if you don't vote, don't complain". This is wrong, and even backwards; it's nothing but more faulty statist propaganda. Here's three strikes against this misguided platitude:

  1. Everyone has a right to complain about anything the government does, regardless of voting. We're all paying taxes and being restricted and controlled and otherwise having our rights violated. Voting does not change this, therefore, voting is irrelevant to our right to complain.
  2. Those who do vote, especially for the major parties- that's nearly everyone- might actually have less right to complain. After all, if you play the game, you're consenting to the rules, right? You still have a right to complain (see above) but it seems like you have less grounds for doing so than if you either abstain from voting or cast protest votes.
  3. This assumes a non-voter's vote would have changed things. Look at the math: it never does. Look at the candidates, too: often they are not very different on major issues. So even if they had voted their reason to complain would be unchanged.
Note: This is nether an anti-voting nor a pro-voting post.

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