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October 2, 2008 at 03:28:52     Permalink The "Power" of Voting Diary Entry by Mark E. Smith (about the author)

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What power do we have, I was asked, other than the power of voting? This is a slightly edited version of my response to that question.

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It is illogical to ask what power we have other than voting, because that assumes that voting has some power. In America today, it does not.

In both 2000 and 2004 the President was sworn in BEFORE the popular votes were counted. In 2000 the Supreme Court stopped the votes from being counted until after the President had been sworn in and it was too late to do anything about it, and in 2004 Kerry conceded before the votes were counted and once again the President was sworn in before the votes were counted.

What power can anyone think that a vote that Constitutionally need not be counted has? It has no power whatsoever.

The reason that the government can claim legitimacy is because it holds elections. Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, as was stated in the Declaration of Independence, and that consent is gained through elections.

However in a democracy or a republic, the actual power over government resides with the people and no government official can be sworn into office BEFORE the votes are counted, the way it is done here. 

In a democracy or a republic, the people's vote is final and cannot be overruled or disregarded by a Congress or a Supreme Court the way it is done here.

In a democracy or a republic the people have a nonviolent way to hold their respresentatives accountable DURING their terms of office (not afterwards when the damage has been done and cannot be undone) and can directly remove them from office for malfeasance, unlike here where the Constitution granted that power only to Congress, not to us.

In a democracy or a republic, voting, if the elections are honest, allows citizens to have power over their government. 

In the United States, voting merely give the government permission to do whatever it wants and does not give us any power to hold them accountable. Trying to vote them out after their terms of office are up does not give us any power to control what they do when they are in office, which is when they are part of government.

Election boycotts can and have successfully discredited governments because if very few people vote, the government cannot demonstrate the consent of the governed and is no longer legitimate.

When you vote, you are not exercising your power, you are delegating your power to people who you will not be able to hold accountable while they are in office. All you can do is attempt to delegate your power to somebody else after their term of office is up and the damage has been done.

If you stop voting, you stop delegating your power to people you cannot hold accountable, and THEN you have power, power that you can only have if you don't give it away by voting in elections where your vote need not be, and frequently is not counted, and wouldn't give you any control over your government even if it was counted.

Power to the people!

Don't vote -- it only legitimizes 'em. 

 

 

I'm an anti-civilizationist and election boycott advocate in San Diego. For reasons not to vote in faith-based elections with secret vote counts for candidates you cannot hold accountable if they fail to represent you, check out the discussions, (more...)
 

 

 
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