Electoral politics is designed to individualize.
Everything about modern life is designed to individualize.
I am individualized; therefore, I am liberalized.
I am an individual; therefore, I am a liberal.
Part I (of II)
On the one hand, the onus should not be on the individual to vote if they do not wish to select either/any candidate for any reason. They are not to blame for the failure of another’s desired outcome. On the other, is it not also individualistic for the non-voter to abstain from their right, “to have their voice heard,” whether out of systematic disillusionment or outright refusal to vote for a candidate that does not reflect their values? To hold out entirely because of non-negotiable steadfastness to individual convictions. But then, there is the dilemma of your fellow man: don’t you owe it to them? Wouldn’t lesser-evilism, harm reduction, settling, voting blue no matter who, be the responsible thing to do? Nothing changes when you do; it’s all a fundraising racket that convinces the subject that they can make a difference, be a part of something larger than themselves. But then, the right to vote is only granted precisely because it is such an unsubstantial part of politicking; plus, anything that can be given can and will certainly be taken away. Not to mention, that it’s not even your vote that elects your officials, it goes to a college of electors, who so graciously take the burden off your shoulders. (However, even they have no opportunity for individual political expression, lest they be deemed “faithless” and replaced with someone who will tow the party line.) And yet, despite it all, when things don’t go the way they were supposed to, the burden always shifts to the shoulders below yours nonetheless. Rinse and repeat all of the above: this debate can ouroboros itself ad nauseam.
I say this all as someone who did not vote just one week three months ago. I had to work. Yes, I could’ve made time: officially changed my residence and gotten a new state ID weeks or months prior, or looked into requesting an absentee ballot. But I had to work. It makes sense to me that the impetus for electoral engagement should default back to the party. You have to rally the masses out of their inertial comfort. (However, if a global pandemic couldn’t even do that, it’d be ridiculous to imagine electoralism as a stronger oppositional force, somehow succeeding in moving an immovable needle the other way. On the contrary, electoralism is part of the illness, this condition that arrests the movement of those who may not even realize they were never moving to begin with.) The people have to be sold. Everything is advertising and I wasn’t advertised to convincingly enough, at least not by anyone I would want in office. If you can’t even pull me away from my job that I hate, you can’t get me to do anything. There, again, it’s all about me, the individual always wants their way. “Why should I?” “What do I get?” “How does this help me?” I didn’t make things this way. Make it easier to vote and I will. Make me excited to vote and I will. Do that and I will play along. But what is it I’m voting for exactly? The economy? The president doesn’t even have the power to control the masters’ house, but we have to pretend he does. One person always has to be there to take credit or take blame. That’ll make me feel better, won’t it?
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