I used to vote. I used to give money to politicians, plant signs in my yard, and hand out flyers at the polling places. A few years ago my intellectual journey took me to the point where I could no longer participate in electoral politics in good conscience. The most common argument I’ve seen against voting is the one laid out by Dubner and Levitt in Freakonomics. They made the rational, utilitarian argument against voting. Essentially, your single vote will not impact the election, so why waste the time and effort? That isn’t a good enough reason for me. Some things are worth doing despite the inconvenience. Voting is not one of them. Here is why.
I believe that every individual has the right to their life, liberty, and property as long as they do not use force or violence against others. Government, by its very nature, is an institution that exists by taking property and liberty from individuals by force. Merriam-Webster gives the legal definition of theft as “taking the property or services of another without consent.” The fact that the theft occurs at the hands of elected government officials does not make it moral. I do not consent to the taxes that are taken from me, and yet the government takes them at the threat of a gun. That is theft, or “legalized plunder” as Bastiat calls it. Voting, therefore, is simply the process by which we determine who will have their money taken by force, and who will profit from the spoils. I refuse to participate. As Murray Rothbard points out in The Nature of the State:
For there is one crucially important power inherent in the nature of the State apparatus. All other persons and groups in society (except for acknowledged and sporadic criminals such as thieves and bank robbers) obtain their income voluntarily: either by selling goods and services to the consuming public, or by voluntary gift (e.g., membership in a club or association, bequest, or inheritance). Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion, by threatening dire penalties should the income not be forthcoming. That coercion is known as “taxation,” although in less regularized epochs it was often known as “tribute.” Taxation is theft, purely and simply, even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. It is a compulsory seizure of the property of the State’s inhabitants, or subjects.
Consider this analogy. Let’s say five people decide among themselves to take $4,000 from one of them and distribute it evenly to the other four. How to decide who should shell out the dough? Of course, being well-educated folks they agree to vote on it. John participates in the vote, but is chagrined to find that he lost the vote and now owes $4,000 to his fellow voters. He may protest, but the fact is that he consented to the decision when he cast his vote. He may not agree with the outcome, but he did agree that a vote was the fairest way to determine the winners and losers. Voting is therefore an act of consent. It represents our willingness to agree to the legality and legitimacy of the decisions made as a result of the vote. This brings me to the first reason I do not vote. I do not consent. The state is corrupt and rotten to the core. It is immoral. I cannot participate in something I so vehemently oppose. Sadly, not voting is one of the few acts of civil disobedience that does not exact a harsh penalty, and so I withhold my consent.
Next, consider the same scenario, but this time John does not agree with the decision to cast a vote. The other four, convinced of the rightness of their cause, vote anyway, and decide unanimously that John must pay up. John refuses, so, in the name of democracy, the others hire a thug (AKA the IRS) to mug him and take his wallet. This is the essence of government power and the electoral process. Our vote determines who is stolen from and who benefits from the plunder. The four voters then represent the second reason I do not vote. Voting is an act of theft and violence. I cannot, in good conscience, participate in a process that is rooted in the violent deprivation of property and rights at the whims of the majority.
Lastly, the American political system is so diseased and corrupted by the power of money and influence that our choices are not really choices at all. The two parties represent different ways to take John’s money and distribute it out to different people, but the end result is the same. In practical terms, our vote does not count. It is an exercise devised to make us feel empowered while our freedoms and livelihood are stripped away. It is the mechanism by which the political elite and big businesses maintain their power while keeping the masses under their thumb. This is how the state preserves itself despite discontent among the populace. This is the third reason I do not vote or invest my time and energy in electoral politics. The system is rigged, and my time is much better spent elsewhere.
I am not apathetic. I care deeply about this country and my community. It is my belief that voting hurts this country and my fellow man. I do not consent to the ruling elite and the corrupt system that is currently in place any more than I would consent to a democratically elected Islamic regime. I also view voting as a means to extort wealth through the use of force and violence, and I cannot participate. Instead, it is time for humanity to move past violence as the foundation of our social order. My goal is to peacefully work for a fully voluntary society in which every person strives to uphold The Golden Rule, peace and mutual consent are the norm, and violence is discarded as a primitive carryover of our past.