ephemera

hammerito:

(In response to this.)

That’s just shirking responsibility. Allowing yourself to always claim, “I didn’t create this mess, someone else did.” You’re still making a choice, but it’s one of apathy, and by staking out that position, you’re absolving yourself of any blame before anything even happens. You’re letting the same people create the same problems over and over again without ever trying to do what little you can to stop it. When faced with two evils, it’s much better to choose the lesser of them than to walk away and declare it someone else’s problem. What those people do eventually will be your problem, whether you like it or not. 

That’s not a personal attack, just an observation, and the same one DFW was trying to make. Democracy depends on participation. You’re forfeiting your right to choose and then calling yourself a slave.

Not voting is not a valid alternative as long as one other person votes; someone is going to be elected, and it’s going to be the candidate whose supporters weren’t too damned apathetic to go out and vote.

Voting for someone who’s not part of the broken two party system, on the other hand, is a vote that collectively could speak loudly. Vote for a better option; don’t choose no option.