>>> gcf at panix.com 11/02/00 09:44AM >>>
They can't vote collectively. The ballot is secret, and each voter can do as she pleases without anyone knowing what she's done. One can vote _only_ as a solitary individual. In a large election, say more than 10,000 voters, the chance that the individual voter will cast the deciding ballot is too small to consider; therefore, under circumstances of individual voting the outcome-effect of a single vote can't be the payoff (rationally speaking).
The only reliable payoff occurs in the voter as an emotional and spiritual result, a sense of connecting oneself to one candidate or outcome or another, a process similar to rooting for a baseball team. In voting, that may well be some elaborate, even Machiavellian scheme; no doubt many people like to put themselves in a sort of smoke-filled room of the spirit, which may even include illusional elements of really supporting a candidate one didn't even cast one's vote for. I'm not criticizing this -- everyone needs their illusions -- but I prefer them at a higher and more sophisticated level. And among leftists, I certainly hope the ritual doesn't take the place of real political work (and play).
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CB: Most of the people don't vote most of the time. The average person is not fooled.