posted by Matthew Cone on Monday November 11 2002 @ 08:49AM PST
By Matthew A. Cone mcone at nmt.edu
"Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support, are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform."
~ Henry David Thoreau
In the early hours of the morning on November 5, 2002, several brave New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology students spent hours illegally posting hundreds of flyers around campus encouraging people not to vote. Despite what some might think, this successful, yet highly controversial direct action campaign was not a random act of violence meant to harm faculty and students. As one of the instigators of this project, I would like to address concerns about our campaign. I did not vote on November 5, I did not encourage people to vote on November 5, and I will not be silenced by critics or the feeble attempts that were made to discredit and destroy our flyers.
Many people that know me may be surprised that I actively supported and contributed to this project. In the past I have been an arch supporter of electoral politics. I actively campaigned for Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election. I registered to vote the day I turned 18 and I voted in every election. I was elected Treasurer of the New Mexico Tech Campus Greens last year. I spent my summer as an intern at the national Campus Greens office in Chicago. Over the summer, I became friends with Dan Johnson-Weinberger, the National Field Director of The Center for Voting and Democracy (fairvote.org), and Rahul Mahajan, the Texas Green Party candidate for governor, as well as many other people that would consider themselves reformists. I lived and breathed electoral politics for three months this year. In the end, I decided to withdraw my support of the government, as completely as I can at this point in my life.
I became politically active many years ago to fight for improvements in people's lives. I was tired of seeing people stepped on time and time again. I was tired of watching innocent people die as a result of our government's policies and activities. I wanted to improve the world, and I thought that the best way to do that was to become actively involved in electoral politics. I felt that by voting for candidates that promised reform, we would slowly be able to change government policies and practices. This assumption of mine was incorrect.
The fact is that most "liberal" candidates do about as well as conservative candidates do when it comes to representing citizens -- they don't. Instead, these elected officials, the ones that are supposed to represent you, are held unaccountable after they leave for Washington. They can do whatever they want to do, and most of the time that's exactly what happens. Instead of representing you, your representatives often wind up representing corporations and special interests, the groups that pay their way into office. You can call, lobby, and write letters to your representatives until hell freezes over, but they're still going to represent their constituencies: the corporations and the special interests. We are not living in a democracy, a representative democracy, or even a republic. Today, United States citizens are living in a plutocracy, government by and for the wealthy. What did you expect from a nation where the top one percent of the wealthiest people have more financial wealth than the bottom ninety percent of Americans combined?
I understand that most people have a difficult time accepting this. Many people simply do not want to believe it, even when presented with the facts. In grade school, we're all taught that we live in a democracy and that we have a say in the policies that affect our lives. We're taught to admire and model ourselves after our "founding fathers", men that supposedly did our country a great favor. Nowhere are we taught that our founding fathers were all wealthy, white men that were self appointed; men that locked themselves in a room to develop a new constitution without the consent or input of their fellow citizens. The scheme that Madison and Hamilton devised has lasted more than two hundred years: a strong centralized state which promotes and protects the accumulation of private wealth in the hands of a few, while reducing the rest of us to the role of dependent employees. The sad truth of the matter is that we are almost completely powerless to influence our representatives through the methods of recourse the government allows us.
It is not easy to stumble across this information yourself. Noam Chomsky says that "you become aware of the limits of reformist politics by trying it." There are limits to reformist politics and the sooner people become aware of them, the better off we'll all be. You cannot change the government, its policies or practices, by voting. You cannot change the government, its polices or practices, by lobbying your representatives. What you will do, ironically, is endorse and legitimatize the very system that is causing the problems you condemn.
At this point, both the liberals and conservatives, if they're still reading, are in a state of total disbelief. "This guy is completely off his rocker," they're saying to themselves. I might be. But consider this: if our "representatives" really wanted to represent us, why wouldn't they call and talk to the people they are supposed to be representing? If our "representatives" really wanted to represent us, why wouldn't they implement instant runoff voting? If our "representatives" really wanted to represent us, why would they accept donations from corporations with strings attached? The answer, of course, is that representing people is not high on our "representatives'" list of things to do.
It is obvious to many that we are now facing a catastrophic failure of our government. The solution is not, as some people believe, to pour more time, effort, and money into a system that has been designed to fail us. The solution is to take matters into our own hands. Many people have already done this. Millions of people from all walks of life have stopped voting. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world actively protest government policies and actions. Millions of people donate time or money to non-profit organizations. Thousands of people carry out direct actions every year. These are the real solutions to the problem that confronts us.
Do not allow yourselves to be deceived: voting breeds apathy. By voting, you are endorsing a government that kills thousands of people every year. By voting, you are endorsing a government that bombs nations without provocation. By voting, you are endorsing the plutocracy that bankrupts our freedoms. By voting, you ensure that the tradition of systemic exploitation and disempowerment will continue. By voting, you are disrespecting yourself and condemning us all.
Discuss this article at: http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=02/11/11/3345022
-- Chuck0
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