General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My son told me that he would not vote [View all]JHB
(37,157 posts)Cribbing from several posts of mine over the last 2 weeks:
Voting isn't just a right, it is often a chore, but one that needs to be done regularly just like washing dishes or cleaning up your house. If you leave it for someone else, it falls to those who don't mind attracting vermin.
When I am completely unable to budge someone like that I ask them if they represent their view (and, duh, of course they do). I suggest they go to the polls and vote for themselves as a write-in candidate. They'll lose, but their vote is there to be counted.
If you sit home, nobody in politics will care, you just make their job easier. But imagine a race where the vote is 25% for one guy, 24% for a second guy, and 51% "other". THAT would get attention.
I've never met the handful of people I've told that to again (or if I have, didn't remember them), so I have no idea of what they actually did. But when I left them I had them thinking.
Voting (for ones' self) is not wasted time if it reminds them that numbers matter.
It's not a waste of time if it gets them into the voting booth to vote for ALL of the offices up for election, not just the high-level ones being "protested".
It's not wasted time if you prove that you and others like you have a track record of going to the polls reliably, and can be counted on to show up and vote if someone starts actively trying to attract yours.