[lbo-talk] the antiwar student vote

Matthew Snyder matthew at pobox.com
Tue Jul 29 12:27:15 PDT 2003


Chuck0 writes:
> The vast majority of anarchists do not vote or participate in elections.
> There may be a few younger anarchists who vote next year, but they do so
> out of fear and failure to totally reject their American social
> conditioning.

[snip]


> It will really suck big time if American activists get suckered into
> wasting their time over the next year on pointless electoralism. This
> will set back our work and destroy momentum much more thoroughly than
> any amount of government repression could hope to achieve.

Is there no difference between "pointless electoralism" and the simple act of casting a ballot?

There's certainly almost no time at all spent on the actual act of voting, but it sounds to me like you're using this notion of destroyed momentum and wasted time to justify not voting.

Often (at least in some states) there are ballot questions pertaining to funding, for example, that aren't directly "electoral" in the sense you're using the word. Does caring about the answer to one of those questions enough to go answer it also "destroy momentum"?

-- Matthew Snyder Philadelphia, PA



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