None Of The Above
- jim young
“If you keep choosing the lesser of the evils, pretty soon all you have left is the evil of the evils.” – Dick Gregory, comedian and Presidential Candidate
Just like almost every other election, I’m in a quandary with the upcoming federal election in Canada.
That doesn’t mean I don’t care.
But I don’t buy the “if you don’t vote you have no right to complain” bullshit that I often hear given as a reason why I should vote.
That’s really a cop-out for those people that believe everyone should vote but they really don't have a good argument for why everyone should vote.
Suggesting you have no right to complain just because you didn’t vote doesn’t even make sense. Those who vote for the party that gets elected are really the only ones who shouldn’t have a right to complain. They’re the ones that put the bastard in power!
Everyone else should have the right to complain whether they voted or not.
In fact, everyone shouldn’t vote. One of my college teachers, Mike Wolfe once told our class, “A democracy is a great thing as long as everyone doesn’t participate.”
And it makes good sense. Kind of like “too many cooks…”
I don’t think anyone who hasn’t taken the time to educate themselves on at least the very basics of who is running and what their party stands for, should vote. This includes anyone who votes for a particular party only because their father, their father’s father and his father before him have “always” voted for that party.
I’m not saying they shouldn’t have the right to vote or they should be prohibited from voting or even that they should have to prove they have at least some knowledge about who they are voting for. I’m just suggesting they shouldn’t vote.
So what do you do if you don’t think any of the people or parties are right for the job?
By voting for the lesser of the two evils I must first accept that whatever choice I make, I am voting for “evil”.
There should be an option on the ballot that reads “None Of The Above.”
This option would allow me to vote without compromising my integrity by voting for a person or party that I don’t believe is qualified for the job. It would give me the opportunity to send a clear message to all politicians that I believe that none of them are worthy of running my country.
Can you imagine what would happen if “None Of The Above” won the election? What would happen then?
Would SOMEONE finally sit up and take notice and maybe, just maybe – try to figure out an alternate solution?
As long as those who protest by not voting are lumped in with all the others who don’t vote for whatever reasons they may have, those that protest the available options will never have a voice.
And if I don’t have a voice in a country that claims to be a democracy, you’re damn right I’m going to complain.
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