As promised, I declined to vote last week. I was joined by 96 million other non-voters. The turnout was about 57.5% of eligible voters, lower than in the past two presidential elections.
Whether my fellow non-voters were motivated by morality, a healthy distaste for politics, or a natural apathy, they did their fellow humans a service by staying away from the polls. To vote is to encourage the state by playing its game.
As usual, the election was followed by advice how the losing party should attract more voters, and calls for a third party. For those of us seeking liberty, none of this is relevant. The problem is the existence of government. Politics is a symptom of government, and elections are a means of perpetuating the problem.
If a gang kidnapped you, and invited you to periodically vote on which gang member should be the Chief Kidnapper, would you participate? You might recognize that the issue was your captivity, not the leadership of your captors. The state kidnaps each of us at birth, asserting its authority on the basis of legitimacy it lacks.
Also, as usual, we heard the fatuous scolding that we get the government we deserve. The government we deserve is none, and the liberty we seek will not be achieved by voting. Depending on the wisdom of voters is absurd. Allowing others to vote away your freedom and prosperity is foolish.
As Isaac Morehouse has observed,
Genuine change will come when the state is ignored, not reformed. It will come not when politicians are better, but when they are irrelevant.
Change will come not from voting, but rather from not voting. Thank you for not wasting your vote.
[Dead links deleted: November 4, 2020]
