An Open Letter To Non-Voters

The United States has among the lowest voter turnout in the developed world. Which often has people across the globe wondering why so many Americans like to espouse the virtues of democracy while not participating in our own.

The most vulnerable among us who feel they have no reason to fight for a community or nation that does not fight for them – this is a tragic yet understandable surrender. But the indifference (sometimes disdain) towards voting among the more privileged is much harder to comprehend.

Not voting is less passive resistance (as I’ve heard it called), more passive aggressive. It’s the silent treatment on a mass scale, but when has the silent treatment ever led to significant change? Moreover, silence creates a vacuum; in politics, a power vacuum. And it may be filled not by not the wisest and most prepared, but by the quickest and craftiest who are happy to exploit the indifference.

Not voting isn’t simply taking a tremendous freedom for granted, it belies an almost willful ignorance of politics. It’s a form of magical thinking, as if it politics somehow exists outside the social and human forces that guide all of our lives.

Many nonvoters have said their heart or conscience won’t let them choose “lesser evils” but what if we ourselves — our hearts, skills or ideas — are someone else’s “lesser” choice? Purity tests work both ways.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of us do not live on the fringes of society and engage daily in decisions and battles that require compromise, sacrifice or strategy, or all three. For better relationships, homes, jobs.

Few of us choose emotional abstinence as a way to combat “emotional corruption” after a heartbreak. Even fewer joined the workforce only when the ideal job came along, or can afford to drop out of it entirely if their ideas aren’t being adopted. How many people even have the luxury of offering input at the workplace, much less voting on its future?

Voting is simply stating what we want – or don’t want – for ourselves and those around us. As citizens, it’s literally the least we can do. Because the overwhelming majority of us are not politicians, activists or community leaders, how else do we help shape social, fiscal and environmental policies and oversight?

I think it’s fair to assume that none of us in the democratic world would intentionally trade places with those who risk their very lives to cast a ballot. Yet the unintentional consequence of opting out of the democratic process is losing it altogether.

Democracy is fragile and doesn’t just die in darkness. It so easily dies in the light of day.