Better to Vote, But...

Tomorrow is a primary election day here in Michigan, and I will dutifully cast my vote. Yet the older I get, the less certain I am of its value.

To begin with, there's a degree to which democracy is simply the tyranny of the majority. Too many people want everybody else's money, time, and effort spent on what they believe important. Those folks are all too ready to force their will on the fifty percent minus one. That's arrogance, and insults basic human dignity. 

Generally speaking, we can and should do for ourselves, and are decent enough on our own to help those who can't. We need to put clamps on government power rather than give it further release. Voting I sometimes fear merely feeds the beast while giving it legitimacy. Legitimacy to do anything it chooses. At the risk of understatement, that's fraught with peril.

Then there's all these people more than willing to 'sacrifice' for us. I am increasingly skeptical of the integrity of anyone who actually wants to be a politician. What makes you so great that you can solve all what ails us? 

At the heart of it, I can't escape the idea that the great majority of people who want to be politicians are at heart narcissists. To be sure, the depth of that will vary from person to person. Some will be better than others, but circumstance works against them all. I'm not sure it's possible for anyone to be completely selfless enough (or forceful enough) to serve the populace in full objectivity.

So I'll vote, and hope and pray for the best. It's all I've got, and it is a bit of neglecting duty to not cast a ballot. Still, it's a shame that all too often my vote is cast while holding my nose, and fearing my neighbor.

Bothering to Vote

It's getting a lot harder to become excited about elections, and that's considering there are things which at one time would have made excitement easy.

Take for example Dr. Ben Carson. It's pretty obvious that many conservative media and social organs like him, and no doubt that he might well be a good right winger. Yet it's quite easy to say the right things to an audience which you're trying to cater to. But can you actually translate that into good use of real power?

That's a very difficult thing to do. Outside of the political structure one can say whatever they want. Inside the structure, when there are hundreds of elected officials many of whom are working at cross purposes to you, and millions more bureaucrats who can effectively stymie your efforts, well, how effective can you be?

This is not to let politicians off the hook. When you pledge something you must do your best to make it work. Yet all too often the invariable compromises move you father away from your mark. And that's before the courts allow minority opinions to block your way too. It makes one wonder whether, as many libertarians assert, voting is worth it.

It is, but only because the alternative of long range tyranny is far worse. Sometimes, however, that is not the best incentive to be a model citizen.