NOT VOTING IS A VIABLE OPTION

Last week I posted a comment on Facebook that came from a New York Times reader who wrote, “If it comes down to a choice between Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump I won’t be bothering to vote… neither has a chance of ever enacting one of their unworkable policies. And both are equally unqualified to be President.  At least when I travel and people in other countries ask what we were thinking, I can take the symbolic high ground and say, don’t ask me. I didn’t vote for him.”

Some of my Facebook friends had a negative reaction to this comment.  One wrote, “We have to vote regardless of the choices.  Not to vote is not the answer.”

Another wrote, “Agonizing advice from a commenter who suggests the best way to change is to ignore the importance of being engaged. Hardly seems adult.”

I respectfully disagree. People died for the right to vote, but they also died for the right not to vote. In some dictatorships you were in big trouble if you didn’t vote, and you were in even bigger trouble if you didn’t vote for the dictator. That’s how in some elections the man in charge got 110% of the tally.

Not voting can be a response.  No response is a response. If you ask a girl to marry you and she doesn’t answer, she’s given you an answer without answering.  If you send a job application to a company and they don’t get back in touch with you, you’re not getting the job.

I’ve read that some supporters of Bernie Sanders will stay home in November if he doesn’t get the nomination. That’s making just as much of a statement as if they show up and write his name in under Hillary’s.

Monday night I said to my wife, “Are you going to vote for Bernie Sanders?” She said, “Yes, probably.” “Well,” I said, “I’m going to vote for Hillary which will cancel you out. So let’s stay home and neither of us vote. The outcome will be the same.”

That’s logical, isn’t it? She didn’t go for that idea, so she voted and I voted.  It’s probably two miles from our house to the polls, and there weren’t many people there mid-morning, so it was no big deal.  But what if we had to go way across town through traffic and there was a two-hour line to vote? It would make even more sense to stay home since there would be no difference in the score.

I hate to be too cynical, but in about 43 states this November you could stay home and it would make no difference. Hillary or Sanders supporters who stay home because their candidate didn’t make the finals aren’t accomplishing anything. The Democrat always wins the presidential election in Massachusetts. The Republican always wins in Mississippi.

Sad but true, unless you live in one of the seven swing states: Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia, Iowa, and New Hampshire—your state has already been put into the won-lost column of both political parties.

That’s assuming a nominee isn’t so bad he turns a red state blue or a blue state red. That’s happened in the past, and it could happen to the orange-haired Republican this year.

by