Don't sanction "the process"

There are so many quotable quotes in my friend Wendy McElroy’s latest blog post this morning (“Act Responsibly: Don’t Vote!!”) that I’m tempted to reprint the whole thing here. But I won’t. Go read it for yourself. In the meantime, chew on these choice bits:

“This November, most people won’t ‘do it’ in the voting booth despite attempts to shame them. They will spend the time on activities that enrich their lives: buying groceries, playing with children, catching up on work.”

“Sometimes political disgust converts non-voting from an act of indifference to one of protest through which people express a word that all politicians fear: ‘no.’ Not just ‘no’ to them but to the entire process.”

“Voting is not an act of political freedom. It is an act of political conformity. Those who refuse to vote are not expressing silence. They are screaming in the politician’s ear: ‘You do not represent me. This is not a process in which my voice matters. I do not believe you.’”