2024 is an election year, and not just in the USA. Apparently dozens of countries containing about half the global population will be, or have already finished, voting for new rulers this year. As usual, anyone who challenges the status quo and questions the merits of democracy is accused of apathy. "If you don't vote, you can't complain," they say. George Carlin had a great rebuttal for that claim all the way back in 1996.
As politicians try to court those outside the core partisan circles in order to get whatever voter margins they can, there are sometimes dismissive statements about the ideological purists who won't vote at all as a matter of principle. I think this means they know it isn't just apathy, it is often outright rejection of their false choice zero-sum game. "Go write your blog posts," they say, as if pamphlets and coffee house discussion haven't been the foundation for rebellions and revolutions for centuries now.
If you vote, vote for the least-authoritarian sociopath you can. Reject the police state apologists, the welfare state paternalists, the warmongering sociopaths, the corporate cronies, and the command economy technocrats. Vote minor party. Write in the name of a political prisoner. Don't just rubber-stamp the schemes of the political class and their major party toadies.
If you don't vote, be prepared to defend your active refusal. My own arguments include pointing out how democracy is merely the formalization of the bandwagon fallacy, there is no rational basis for transferring authority over your neighbor to a stranger he opposes, and Christians are to have no King but Christ while everything political is idolatrous.
So yes, I will continue to blog, and thank you for your grudging acknowledgement that you offer me nothing to support, politicians and pundits. Whatever your party, I hope you lose.
