July 31, 2004
The Unbearable Lightness of Voting
The institution of the vote is a time of potential renewal. Our nation will shed some of its old skin in favor of new patches; in other parts, dependable scales will remain in place. In this way, our old democracy breathes new life into itself, resurrecting a covenant between our nation’s citizens for another two years.
But as we reach out our hands to pull the voting lever (or punch the card, or tap the keypad) some of us will be overcome with the disheartening melancholy of indeterminism, the inescapable feeling that this vote, like all the ones before, will have only a slight impact upon our nation, a tiny shuffle instead of a rousing leap. We have become accustomed to this bitter war of inches, a slight but bloody struggle over which we lose our hearts and sometimes our minds. Our collective shoulders are levied against a huge, unyielding rock that we call America, and at most we can hope for a budge.
I suspect that this feeling is mutual across the ideological divide. In our minds we are screaming, shouting at walls of opposition. We’ve heard the same words so many times. We’ve felt the same indignation so many years before. Our hopes, reflected back with smiles and handshakes by the politicians we line up to support, are fragile wish-things. We expect to have them dashed. Rarely do we find disappointment in this apprehension.
Still, we vote. Half of our dream is better than none. We play our hand for the long game, the idea that through slow, torturously unrewarding steps we might achieve a greater good in the long run. We throw ourselves against the unyielding rock again and again, we lean in with full force and grit our teeth with determination. Maybe this time will be different. Maybe it will be.
I often hear the reliable chestnut that goes, “If you don’t vote you don’t have a right to complain.” It’s an easy platitude to swallow, and it should be true, but at some level it isn’t. There are plenty of things we don’t do that we complain about. We don’t have to participate in a process to understand its flaws. In a democracy, we should all vote, but I can not completely blame those who do not, at least not those who reject the responsibility out of an honest feeling of disenfranchisement, or simply because they are tired. I’d like these stray citizens to try something new, to vote for someone unusual, or to consider running themselves. But the action is theirs to take, and people rarely change their minds by being told to do so.
The clinically depressed have been known to find the mere act of getting out of bead each day to be tremendously taxing. Facing another day of emptiness is sometimes too much to bear. Crushing daily mediocrity can grind down a life, and rob hearts of belief in a better day. I imagine that some citizens have made the acquaintance of a political sibling to depression, a state of mind in which the mere thought of political activism in the face of a monolithic and unmovable status-quo is simply too much to overcome.
I have no doubt that many of us have touched this plane, but like me, most have found the will to push away from it. Some have fallen in, and maybe a few of them are here with us, reading these words. But though we may not be able to expect all of the changes we desire, our vote remains our best and brightest hope of change in this republic of ours. Although the battle never seems to end, and the rock continues to appear immovable, we have to continue to push, because sometimes the rock that is America does budge, and in that budging we may inch a bit closer to the dreams that we hold dear. After all, what other choice do we have? Half of our dream is better than none.
An elequent post, Damon. Some real literary flair there.
I know what you mean, but for myself I know I’m going to take some real satisfaction in voting for Bush in November.
This is because if Kerry wins, and I have to turn on the news to see Bush give a concession speech and the Arab street ululating for joy in their burqas, I’ll know it wasn’t my fault that America chose to so embarass itself.
The vote may be fairly insignificant from an individual point of view, but it does help, if only in a small way, to keep our hands and our consciences clean.
Posted by: Martin at August 1, 2004 02:46 AMI’ve never heard democracy referred to as scaly and molting. Thank you Damon.
And c’mon, Martin. Everyone knows the terrorists are backing Bush. You’ll hear them wailing in the casbah come November, when Kerry wins.
Yeah, ;) well, to me, the ideal of democracy as a perfect and lovely creature is not an effective way of thinking about it. I think of democracy as a tough creature that survives by adaptation and regeneration. Its not always pretty, and it survives precicely because it can change, shed its skin, etc. Not a pretty picture, sure, but a teneacious creature thus far.
-D
someone once said that and I am paraphrasing: “politics is the feeling of a screw being slowly turned into a wooden board.” Meaning that change is slow and excruciating. But even still, change does happen… eventually.
Posted by: miguel at August 1, 2004 01:02 PMDamon,
I’m a non voter. I don’t plan on changing that this year. You really got to the heart of how I feel every time there is a vote. I think I may vote at the state level this year, but the big candidates just aren’t doing anything for me. Blah.
David Klein, as convenient an excuse for abdication of one’s responsibility as any I have heard. There is a plethora of candidates out there from a host of different parties. But, researching them is too hard. And if I chose a candidate, they wouldn’t win anyway. So you will remain with the 46 or so % of people who won’t vote in November. Do you not see the potential for your vote to radically change American politics. If only 5% of non-voters voted for candidates other than Bush or Kerry, the effects and implications would be landscape altering.
Ah, but, there’s football, beer, skirt chasing, rock climbing and fun at the beach burying one’s head in the sand as alternative activities on November 2, which would be so much more enjoyable. I understand!
Posted by: David R Remer at August 1, 2004 06:04 PMVoting is better than bloodletting anyday. Yes It’s excruciatingly slow by design. Thus far, it’s seems to be the best system around.
Posted by: Greg at August 1, 2004 06:19 PMDavid,
I hope you are reading this. Look, as I said in the article, I know how it is. But if you are going to be heading to the election booth anyway, I urge you to vote for someone, even if you want to write someone in. Maybe you will find someone you like among the Libertarians, Greens, and other parties of the world. If you are going to vote on election day, think about casting a vote for the top slots too, even if it isn’t for a conventional candidate.
Cheers.
Posted by: Damon Dimmick at August 1, 2004 06:39 PMDavid Klein, it is your duty as a citizen of the United States to vote. This is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people - not of some of the people, by some of the people, and for some of the people. If you don’t vote, it doesn’t work.
Stop whining, pick an issue, and vote for the candidate who addresses it to your satisfaction!
“Blah.” Please. Take some responsibility for your life and your society.
Carl Rove almost single handedly moved Texas from Democrate to Republican. He did it by manipulating your perceptions. But, no matter how ridiculous the political rhetoric gets, people never starve where they can vote. Imagine if there were an 90% turnout, would the landscape change again?
Posted by: bayviking at August 2, 2004 09:53 AMIs anyone else still concerned about the physical problems and technical shorfalls of the voting process? i.e. the ability to properly count and verify votes, keep them secure, and provide voting rights for all who should be eligible.
Even after the 2000 election and widespread recognition of a need for revamped voting methods, as well as many letters, articles, and petitions from groups like blackboxvoting.com and verifiedvoting.org, there seems to be little change over the past 4 years. We do now have proposed legislation dealing with the issue, but to my knowledge nothing has been passed, and the clock is ticking very quickly. And in Florida, even the Republican Party is concerned about the voting machines - again, this is not a partisan issue, but just a concern that we should all share about the importance of vote tracking and accountability.
Elsewhere there are still serious problems going on as we speak. Here is an example of a local election in Riverside County, CA, as well as a follow up article as it is still unresolved. This example not only begs the question of creating standards, but of effectively enforcing them.
And in Florida, we are seeing repeat problems of the Florida felon list, but this particular problem is getting into partisan territory as the new list (which has been scrapped and is being refigured) showed that while blacks make up 48% of the prison population and represented 46% of the list, hispanics represent 11% of prison population, but only 1% of the list (in Florida, blacks are known to generally vote democratic, while hispanics vote more republican).. But again, this should not be a partisan issue, there may be similar mistakes &/or tricks going on by democrats against republicans which we should not put up with.
I only hope legislation might be passed in time, but there are different versions of bills- 2 before the House and 3 before the Senate, and I don’t know if/when they plan on getting this resolved….
Posted by: peezee at August 3, 2004 11:09 AMI wrote to my representatives about it, peezee. They all (even the Republican one) say they’re working on it, but I don’t think any of the bills take effect until 2006. I’m assured that will cause states to only buy new machines that leave a paper trail in time for this election. We’ll see.
peezee, excellent comments and resources. It is beginning to look like their is no political will to insure fair elections in 2004. The committees in Congress aired on C-Span continually remark that there will always be problems with the election system regardless of what technology is used. Hence, no great urgency to improve and shore up election deficiencies.
Posted by: David R. Remer at August 4, 2004 02:52 PM
