[Vision2020] please remember

[Douglas]

Visionaries,

Actually, my first comment was (mostly) facetious, but from the response I 
am thinking it should not have been.

So, let me be clear about my position on this. I do not believe it is a sin 
to vote in elections.

Cordially,

Douglas Wilson



At 10:43 PM 11/4/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>Sorry people, but I must step in here.
>
> > Donovan Arnold wrote:
> >
> > “Support democracy, end dictatorship, VOTE.”
> > Tell me this is a joke. Democracy can’t rule out dictatorship if a
> > majority votes it in. Dictators all around the world have been voted in
> > by the sacred cow of democracy. Great help voting was.
>
>Are you echoing the "tyranny of the majority" quote by one of our founding
>leaders? I think it was meant in the opposite direction; i.e. no 
>participation
>and suffer therefrom. In the meantime, send this message to others in
>countries who cannot vote freely.
>
> >
> > And:
> > “Thank you for caring about your community.”
> > Shouldn’t this be, “thank you for coercing your community”? How
> > has
> > “coercing” become the same thing as “caring”? Politics is only
> > about
> > forcing people do things they won’t do freely. Why should that be
> > lauded
> > in hushed tones? Don’t we have better things to do as a community
>than
> > threaten one another with coercion? Do something productive.
> >
> > Doug Jones
>
>Do you mean "[to] do things?"
>
>Ok, so voting is a coersive act. I would thoroughly agree with voting as a
>subversive act, but I think that's the point of open individual voting. 
>Until I
>hold a weapon at your head in the booth, or you do the same, or anyone
>else does it to either or both of us, I have a difficult time envisioning
>casting a private ballot as coersive. We're back to the tyranny observation,
>which is again a reason to vote individually.
>
>So the alternative is not to vote? Thereby solidifying whatever coersion is
>already in place?
>
>Hushed tones. I know of no louder voice than the freely casted individual
>vote.
>
>I admit that I assume the comment of not voting was
>a) a joke
>b) the posting of a rather egomaniacal person who seeks more press
>c) a serious injunction
>d) all of the above.
>
>Finally, let us remember the outcome of the last presidential election,
>wherein a walloping ~51% of registered voters did so.
>
>On my own time, and thank you Ms Sullivan for a great question,
>
>Warren Hayman
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> >
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>
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