Now
that the elections are history, for those who may be interested, the following
is an explanation of why I did not vote.
I had originally intended to post this essay before the elections, but
then I realized I had no right to even attempt to influence others in how they
should vote. It is up to each citizen to
be well-informed and decide what she or he will do on Election Day. My decision is solely my
own.
Superstorm
Sandy only further confirmed my decision not to post before the election by
knocking out the cable connection to the Internet, but not our electricity, so I
could still use my computer to write, revise, and edit, but not to get
online.
So, what follows are my reasons for not voting, well-considered long before Election Day. If they enable the reader to at least understand my decision not to vote anymore, regardless of whether or not the reader agrees, this essay will have succeeded.
Romney's Choice and Obama's Record
Once
Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate, many liberals opined that the
choice for voters could not be more clear: with his choice, Romney did not
merely certify his extreme, right-wing,Tea Party credentials, but further
distanced himself from Barack Obama, the (by comparison) "liberal",
supposedly-safety net-supporting candidate.
We
already know Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts, a relatively liberal
state where Romney had to pretend to be a moderate Republican, complete with
"Romneycare", the model for "Obamacare". We also know Romney will say anything
to get elected (as did Obama in both 2008 and 2012).
We
also know Paul Ryan's record in Congress as the author of one of the cruelest
budget proposals in recent memory, unless you love the top 1% and want to do
everything you can to increase their already-obscene
wealth.
But now, after the three televised "debates" (actually over-hyped joint press conferences), during which neither the existential threat of catastrophic climate change nor increasing U.S. poverty and inequality were ever mentioned, especially the third debate on foreign policy, in which Romney essentially agreed with Obama's violent, imperialistic foreign policy (the foreign policy of every President), and after more than three-and-a-half years of Obama's presidency, we have an extensive record of Obama's actions, not merely his fine-sounding rhetoric, by which to judge him.
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