By: Rose

In reply to Jessica.

First of all, the anarchists and anti-statists you mention are just one segment of the people who don’t vote. A much bigger segment are people who are liberal but who sit it out, or vote third-party, because they feel disenfranchised. That’s who I’m talking about. I’m aware that not everyone on the left considers themselves a “liberal.”

The fact of the matter, though, is that what I’m saying about not voting being a lazy and ineffective means of protest? Not incorrect. There’s a reason that nobody cares about people on the hard-left, like the anarchists and anti-statists you mention. They don’t vote! People care about those on the far right, though, because they vote in huge numbers. Voting is directly tied into how much of an impact your political actions have. You can protest all you want and “work outside the system,” but if you’re not going to go to the polls, politicians have no reason to listen to your protests, because you don’t have an impact on your job.

And I don’t know, I don’t have a huge amount of sympathy for people who think anarchism would actually be a plausible system for a large modern society like the U.S. to “respect” their decision not to vote. I think that ignores some pretty basic notions about how human societies work, and if anything I think that hard-leftists’ idea that not-voting is a good means of protesting the system is part of a larger pattern of them being too idealistic for their own good. (For the record, I identify as a democratic socialist and I think libertarian anarchists are just as idealistic, so don’t go down that route, but I don’t think that a lack of a government and people just choosing to cooperate with one another without intervention is ever going to work for a society the size of the U.S. I’ve heard most of the arguments to the contrary and find them unconvincing.)