> As to whether it makes a difference -- I disagree with Carrol to this
> extent: I think each vote for a Democrat does a weensy bit of net
> damage to the well-being of humankind (WBOH), and each abstention --
> particularly if it's proudly proclaimed from the housetops, e.g. by
> wearing a Don't Vote button -- does a weensy bit of good, if we accept
> that achieving, and spreading, some degree of enlightenment is a net
> gain for the WBOH.
>
> Small, I know, but consider the coral reef, how it grows.
If more of us would go out there and visibly be against voting, or for a radical alternative to the two parties, our examples would provoke more people into questioning the system and joining our movements.
When I was a young 19-year-old Democrat at the University of Kansas back in 1984, I happened to see a lone anarchist who was picketing on campus with a sign urging people not to vote. I had been rethinking my involvement with the Democrats, mostly because they had offered up such a doofus in response to Ronald Reagan. That lone anarchist got me thinking more radically and other circumstances came along and turned me into a lifelong activist and anarchist.
I agree that people who advocate voting who should know better are doing damage to their own political visions. How many elections do people remember where Democrats argued that everybody had to vote for their candidate in order to prevent somebody worse from taking office?
How has that worked out for us? Pretty badly.
Chuck