From: dmandl@panix.com (David Mandl)
Date: Fri, 27 May 94 20:26:58 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: If you don't vote...
Message-ID: <199405280300.AA28489@panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


From: lefty@apple.com (Lefty):

>In case anyone's been wondering, I vote a straight "None of the Above"
>ticket.  Every election.  I happen to believe that if you don't punch holes
>in your cards (we don't have those big, fun voting booths here in
>California like they do back East), you have no right to complain.

At the risk of prolonging an irrelevant thread, I feel I've got to point
out the bum logic in this argument.

If you go to Las Vegas, put a thousand bucks down on the blackjack table,
and lose, you can't complain.  You made a bet knowing the risks involved,
and you lost.  You would gladly have accepted the profits if you'd won.

If a blackjack dealer comes over and takes a thousand dollars out of my
pocket, he's just robbed me.

If you vote, you're tacitly accepting that it's a fair game and agreeing to
abide by the rules.  If your candidate loses, that's the way the cookie
crumbles.  If you don't vote because you think the whole game is rigged and
don't want any part of it, you're clean.  You never wanted to play to begin
with.

Many people on this list are familiar with Lysander Spooner's article "No
Treason," which explains that the Constitutional "contract" is not a
binding contract at all, because you and I never signed anything.  Same
argument.

I understand why some anarchists vote (though I think it's a big mistake),
but there's no way I can be told that I've got no right to complain because
I didn't agree to play.

If you DO vote, don't complain.

   --Dave.

--
Dave Mandl
dmandl@panix.com