On Voting

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

There’s been a lot of talk about voting here at Docudharma.  This essay was inspired, lol, by reading curmudgeon’s comments trying to persuade posters here to vote Democratic.

The sad thing, or perhaps it is normal given human nature, is that nowadays the only real reason one can give to vote for a Dem is that the Repubs will otherwise win.  In other words, a negative example.

As I was a debater in both high school and college, I could probably manufacture some more persuasive arguments on why we should vote Democratic in November.

I’ll probably be doing so, voting Dem, that is.  As I’ve said before, I am no political genius.  Sigh.

Buhdydharma has written several excellent essays on voting — and his take on those who choose not to vote is to make it a “movement.”

But this essay is not about trying to persuade anyone to do anything insofar as voting is concerned.

GOTV.  Get out the vote.

When did that start?

I’m not talking about campaigning.  I’m talking about GOTV.  In the case of the Dem party, folks going out door to door trying to persuade their fellow citizens to vote for this or that candidate.  ‘Course now it’s a huge operation with databases and paid positions and such.

I wish we had a better message to carry for those citizens who want to be involved in government and are willing to approach their neighbors and try to begin a dialogue.

I wish that wasn’t just about getting out the vote, in other words.

But oh well.  That’s what we have right now.

I’ve said this in comments and I’ll say it again here in this essay.

We have an inalienable right to vote, not given to us by any person but by our Constitution.

We can argue and try to persuade others on how to vote or even whether to vote.

But to me the bottom line is that no one has the responsibility or obligation to explain to anyone else who they’re voting for or if they’re voting at all.  Not that there can’t be dialogue about this, but no one has any power over another in this, nor do they have a moral high ground.  Voting is an equal right and at this point in our culture, I no longer give any credence to moral pronouncements when it comes to politics.  There is no moral consensus in the United States.

At least not one I’ll bow my head to.

So agree or disagree on various opinions and thoughts and feelings about voting, no one is a better American based on how they exercise that right.  Not now, not in these times.  That’s a hard pill for me to swallow, as I’ve been a loyal Dem for so many decades.  I still resonate to the call of “The Repubs CAN’T be allowed to win!” because I am so utterly opposed to the Republican method of governance.

So for that completely personal and self-centered reason, I’ll vote Dem.  Not for either some lofty philosophy or some holier than thou sense of political superiority.  I just hate and despise and loathe the way Republicans use power.  Those are my feelings and they are completely subjective and I admit it.

I do, however, have nothing but respect for ANY choice ANY of my fellow citizens make when it comes to voting.  I don’t have to respect those choices.  I choose to respect them because it’s none of my damned business to tell someone else what to do.

I don’t know why that’s so important to me that I keep repeating it, never quite getting the words right to describe exactly what I see.

Happy Rosh Hashanah to all and may you all have your names inscribed in the Book of Life for another year.