This month I am
voting in the presidential election for the first time in eight years. Why?
Well I told myself if I could vote for less than $10 then I would do it
and it turned out that shipping my application for an absentee ballot was
almost exactly $10. The last
presidential election I happened to be in Managua, Nicaragua. I went to the US embassy because I heard you
could vote if you showed up but they were closed by the time I made it. Sorry America; Nicaraguan tuk-tuk drivers and
a couple loose cows determined your destiny.
Anyway, it's been a while but this time I'm voting.
So who will I vote
for? Well it doesn't really matter. Hillary Clinton is going to win. If I vote she wins, if I don't vote she wins. I guess I'll vote for Gary Johnson. Why?
To be honest it's totally irrational.
Like I said, no matter who I vote for Hillary will win the election, so
I'm not actually voting in order to try to influence the direction of the
country. I'm also not voting in order to
somehow redeem America's fight for freedom.
I doubt whether any dead soldiers really care whether I vote or
not. I’m also not voting because of my
conscience. Since my vote has no practical
consequences I don't really have to worry about the morality of my
decision. It would be like worrying how
to spend my millions of dollars if I won the lottery. I have about 1/130000000 of the power in the
voting process. That amount of influence
over a single decision is mathematically negligible.
Wait. So why am I voting again? And why for Gary Johnson? I guess it's because it takes so little
effort. You may not drive to a grocery
store just to buy a lottery ticket, but if someone came to your door and asked
you if you wanted to buy one you might say "yes". Why not spend 50 cents on a negligible chance
to win big? It's the power of
suggestion. I was presented with a
choice and it's easier to deliberate on that then to go seek out my own choice
to deliberate on. Of course, in this
case Gary Johnson isn't exactly a "big win", he's more like a
Powerball that only made it to $200, but hey, that's better than nothing.
So I think I got
trapped actually. I decided to do
something easy because it was easy and now here I am wasting time writing a
blog about it. Someone else told me I
needed to help decide between two irrelevant things even though there were
already 130000000 people helping to make the decision. I thought "haha! I'll show you! I'll vote for a third option that you didn't
even present! I'll vote for Gary
Johnson." So that's why I will vote
for Gary. Because I had some free time
with nothing better to do and the very limited amount of half-interested
research I did showed me that anyone was better than Trump and almost anyone
was better than Hillary and by the time I realized the triviality of it all I
had already spent the ten dollars.
One more
question. So probably by now you are
thinking that I am irreverent and disrespectful toward my own country, the
voting process, and anyone who takes voting seriously. So why did I write this blog? Well, the point isn't to offend people who
vote, the point is to point out the practical implications of an individual's
vote. There just aren't many. Basically, it can be fun to argue about
whether the dress was blue or gold, but there's no need to go throwing punches
over it. How Brant Copen votes doesn't
necessarily say anything at all about his character or values, isn't right or
wrong, and doesn't even have any practical consequences.
And one more thing
while I’m on my soapbox. In fifteen
years nobody is going to remember or care about this election. I can't even remember who ran in the election
four years ago. I think the main
political issue of our day that is going to have very long-term consequences
that really impact the trajectory of our world and individual's lives is the
refugee crisis and how we are responding to that. That might actually be something worth
arguing about. Okay that's it, thanks
for reading, leave a comment about who you are voting for if you want but don't
spend too much time deliberating on it.
Argue if you want but try to keep it fun. And most importantly, look up that Youtube
video "Sympathetic Canadians Have a Message for Americans"
RIDICULOUS
ReplyDeleteDude, I looked up that video. One of the Canadians said she loved america because it's so wonderful and warm:) I laughed.
ReplyDeleteHaha! Isn't it amazing?
DeleteBrant-
ReplyDeleteI love you. But this was foolish.
For those of us who don't have the luxury of being unaffected by what happens in the political sphere (namely white, straight, cisgender men), a vote for a third party candidate is a vote for the possibility of Trump being elected by a disillusioned group of people who split the votes that would be going toward a candidate who would actually do the most good for the most people, namely Clinton. And trust me, I get it. Hillary isn't my first choice either, but she is the only candidate who has near enough experience to fulfill this role.
It makes me quite sad that you haphazardly gave away your vote, thinking that your actions do not affect the rest of us, or that your morality is not tied up in who you vote for. Because if everyone takes this as willy-nilly as you, we increase the chance of a Trump becoming the next commander and chief, a disaster for all of us.
As someone who lives within a marginalized identity group, I don't get to opt out of politics. What happens in those arenas affects me and my people directly. It also affects women, immigrants, black and brown people, Muslims, and everyone else who lands and operates in the margins of our society. Next time you vote, please keep in mind the people in your life who are still fighting to be treated as equals in our country. You were not trapped into making a third party choice. You were lazy. And then you wrote a blog about how you were lazy.
Again, I love you, but you can do better.
kg
Hey those are actually really good points Kevin. I haven't actually voted yet so maybe I'll reconsider. Overall though don't you agree that my vote doesn't actually matter? I mean Arizona is as red as it gets and my vote isn't going to change that one bit. I wasn't exaggerating when I said 1 out of 130,000,000 all contributing (supposedly) equal parts toward one decision. Doesn't that seem like maybe it's not even worth participating in?
DeleteIn my opinion, that is the attitude that has perpetuated a system built on the backs of slaves, women, queer folks and indigenous peoples. And it was when people actually woke up and realized their collective power to affect change that change actually happened. And it can't just be on the national level. The policies we put into affect on the local and state level are sometimes even more important than national elections.
DeleteAnd perhaps in other elections I'd probably agree with you about a vote not counting, but I also think we have see the gravity of what is happening in our country in the present moment and not laugh it off or abdicate our authority to those who would seek to continue to centralize and solidify white-cis-hetero-sexist-patriarchy power. It has to start with us actually giving a damn enough to start changing things, and I think it starts with our one vote we get.
I agree in a way but I think you have the cause and effect mixed up. I don't think it starts with our one vote - I think that's where it ends. I don't think we are going to change many lives efficiently by voting but I do think that if we seek to change the lives of others then eventually the way people vote will reflect that; if that makes sense. Laws and policies in a democracy and even elected officials, at least to some extent, intentionally represent the general will and world view of the people as a whole. Change an individual and you've changed the way he votes. Vote against an individual and you've changed nothing. That's why, in this particular election, my vote is meaningless. My state is going to go to Donald because that's the general will of the people as a whole in my state. The US though is going to elect Hillary as their new president because she is the best representative that the most people will agree on. My vote isn't going to do anything.
DeleteEvan McMullin
ReplyDeleteAlso.... teespring.com/Merica2024
ReplyDeleteHahahaha! This is amazing. shoot, why wait until 2024? I'll vote for you now if you can promise to make 'merca 'merca again!
Delete