As someone who has never agreed with representative democracy and always seen the need for revolutionary change to make democracy a reality, voter apathy has had a significant meaning to me. Political campaigners see voter apathy as a rich field for them to farm, just as Christians have for ages looked among the "lost souls" for new recruits. There is no single reason that one decides not to participate in American democracy, but there may be a binding element among the variety of people who opt out of this flawed system. In fact, it's quite possible that I represent the majority of this group in my belief that the system of voting for representatives, especially with our current party politics, is completely defunct. I believe it is not apathy that keeps people from going to the polls, but a passionate belief that a representative, partisan democracy is not democracy at all.
I have gone from not voting, to voting with my heart, to voting with my head, to voting for hope and change, and nothing has changed in the ways I've hoped for. When we vote we are simply voting for someone who always turns the ship of state to the right, or someone who sometimes turns left, nobody seems to have a compass and no one can turn this ship of fools around completely. We seem somehow surprised when the ship wrecks on the rocks and we're all washed up on the deserted island that once had great resources, clean air and water, and fish. While we rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic the rich are filling up the lifeboats and quietly sailing away with all that they can carry. The wealthy have never been true patriots, they don't care which country they extract their wealth from, as long as they don't have to share it with the people they stole it from they're happy.
Voter turn out in presidential election years has hovered near 50% for decades, is it possible that this means that nearly 50% of the American population is ready for real change? Many countries have compulsory voting in which the entire population of eligible voters are required to vote in elections, some enforce this with fines some do not. Some people believe that voting should be a right but not a duty compelled by our governments. But what if non-voting was actually counted like votes, what if a vote for "None of the above" was a vote for revolution, or at least drastic reforms? What if we had a Revolution Party in our party system, in which all non-votes counted as votes for the Revolution Party? Imagine, it would be the largest political party this country has ever had, and it would win every election season unless people get out and vote for something else.
But "Revolution" is always working from the outside right? Wrong, revolution is what happens when people get the power back from the plutocracy that has stolen it year after year from year one. Revolution does not by definition have to be violent, but with no representation in the electoral process it is not allowed to be peaceful, and by design is prevented from ever happening. Thomas Jefferson once said "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Is our democracy so rigid, and yet so fragile that a bloody revolution is what's needed make major revisions and corrections? Why can't democracy include in it's blueprint a mechanism to lubricate the process of these constant corrections, like simply making revolution an option to vote for. I'd rather be forced to vote, than prevented from voting for revolutionary changes.
Even small adjustments to our electoral system are just beyond our reach and require a revolution to be considered at all. For instance, instant runoff voting would break up the two party system in this country by eliminating the fear of voting for a third party, simply put a number next to each candidate representing your first, second, and possibly third choices. In the 2000 elections this might have looked like this: Nader=1 Gore=2 Bush=3, in which case no candidate could be seen as a "spoiler" and everyone can vote their heart first and their head second. This runoff system that is widely accepted as the best way to determine the NFLs' MVP constitutes a revolutionary change for our democracy, it doesn't even enter the realm of national debate during election season.
And while this bad design continues uncorrected, more bad designs are being adopted, like allowing corporations to spend limitless money to influence elections. If you thought this was a bad idea, see if you can change it now, you cannot. We have entered an accelerated phase of electoral corruption, the leak in the damn has burst open and there is no going back now, not without, dare I say it, revolution. The green party can do the right thing and focus on the right issues, but it has a boot on its collective neck and is prevented from making any real change on the national level. But a Revolution Party could play a very effective role in making significant changes in our system. The two dominant parties continue to block the Green party from the public debate forums often by having their candidates arrested if they show up at the debate hall. And if you are a private citizen who shows up to voice your discontent, you are liable to be beaten down in the streets and jailed for no reason.
Revolution is a strong word, I realize that. But the parasites who run the world have always known that they do so at the risk of an all out revolution that could very quickly end their reign of cruelty and greed. They steal the worlds resources and then they spend half of their riches to maintain the machine that made them rich, to prevent anything or anyone from making any real change. But they simply cannot go on much longer, they have concentrated so much wealth in so few hands that they have the whole world against them. They know this and they have fear beyond description that some cause, some leader, some forum can unite these people against them in an effective way. Revolution is that banner, that cause, the real and only hope and change we have as a people, as a planet. Revolution is a threat, and if it's allowed to do it's work as a threat, it may never have to be a reality. We the people deserve some leverage.
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