State of Cape Cod

Everyone Votes, One Way Or Another

It's election time here on Cape Cod, as it is throughout the country. Depending upon where you live you will find several more or less pressing local issues as well as participation in the national races. Once again all the self proclained civic minded gurus in the media are on their electronic and/or print soap boxes demanding that everyone get out and vote.

These misguided holier-than-thou types persist in exhorting everyone to cast a ballot. They insist that it's our collective sacred duty to do so. As if that weren't enough, they berate any and all who might decline to take part in the forthcoming election and smother us with guilt as expertly as any doting grandmother could have accomplished in her prime. A perfect example of male bovine excrement!

Consider all the issues which have faced your town recently. Proposition 2 ½ overrides. School committee seats. A recall election. Zoning issues. Then there are the presidential and other national races. Do you really believe everyone should vote? The operative word is everyone. Think of all the people you know, a group which, if you're like the rest of us, includes the apathetic, the uninformed, the ignorant, the gullible, the flighty, and the downright stupid. How do we as a nation profit if all those unfortunates vote? To exhort everyone to vote is not only misguided but counter productive and might, in the extreme, even be construed as anti-American.

The right to vote is just that – a right to go to the polls on election day and express your preferences, if you have any. There is no obligation to do so. There is no penalty for not voting, nor should there be. Just as all citizens who are registered have a right to do so, all citizens, should they so choose, have an equal right to abstain from voting. There are those among us who are passive or disinterested regarding a public question or candidate and therefore have no opinion to express. Why, then, should they be coerced into casting a ballot? That's pure lunacy. No one should be castigated for not voting because he is uninformed, honestly has no interest in the outcome, or simply chooses to abstain.

In a very real sense there actually is no such thing as a non voter. Remember, a vote is, in the final analysis, merely an expression of opinion. A choice. When you cast a ballot you are simply stating who you believe should help govern you for the coming term. When a person makes a conscious decision not to vote, he has just as clearly expressed his feelings as if he had voted. He has recorded his opinion, or lack of same. He has made an unequivocal statement that among the slate of candidates and ballot questions presented, he has no preference and really doesn't care who wins or which issue carries the day. In other words, he will be perfectly satisfied, or equally dissatisfied, no matter how the election is resolved. If a person truly has no interest in the outcome, why, then, should he vote? What right has anyone, family, friends, or the media, to try to coerce him into voting? It just ain't nobody else's business.

There are many people who absolutely should not vote. If a person hasn't studied the candidates, or truly doesn't favor one over the other[s], or one side of an issue over the opposite, then that individual has an obligation to abstain. If a person is not able to read and comprehend the ballot, in English, which all citizens are required to learn (although there are exceptions) then he or she should not be allowed to vote. What's even worse, if enough people are coerced into voting without sincere convictions or sufficient knowledge, then the election itself might be compromised and an unfortunate, even chaotic, outcome could  result.

Many believe that, if a fair and accurate method to identify them could be devised, only knowledgeable citizens ought to be allowed to vote. There is always a significant number of people who are ignorant of the facts at hand and completely oblivious to the benefits or consequences portended by a victory or defeat on either side. They cast ballots based on appearance, catchy slogans, empty promises, or a cursory eenie-meeny-minie-mo, without any realization as to how such superficiality or crass indifference might influence the future of their country. Or town. Or schools. Or pocketbooks. People like that should certainly be discouraged from voting.

Citizens, and the term is used advisedly in this era of rampant, uncontrolled immigration, have an ever more pressing obligation to become familiar with the issues. All of us should carefully study the candidates and question their motives and their core beliefs. We should become familiar with their personal lives and affiliations, which will certainly indicate what can reasonably be expected of their performance in office. Find out who their friends and advisors might be and in what they believe. Determine from whom they get their financing and will thus more than likely expect a return on their investment. All potential voters should look past the rhetoric and the hype, and search beyond the mainstream media with its meaningless and easily slanted sound bites. It is incumbent upon everyone to learn as much as possible, keep an open mind, and avoid the knee jerk party vote. We need only examine Taxachu…, our own state, to see the less than desirable results of one party government.

So whenever you hear some wannabe pundit telling you that it's everyone's duty to vote, consider that he's ignorantly regurgitating some mindless, feel good, pseudo patriotic rhetoric without having considered the ramifications. If, after careful consideration and research, you have formed a firm opinion, whatever it may be, then by all means vote. Otherwise, do us all a favor and stay home on election day.