As election day draws closer, voter drives, yard signs and (ugh) debates urge Americans to fulfill their civic duty by submitting a ballot.
It holds leaders accountable. It’s the foundation of democracy. People have died to preserve this right. Voting is important.
But it’s not that important. For one thing, being informed matters more than voting.
The right to vote comes with a responsibility to care, to engage ideas and be informed citizens. An uninformed vote is worthless — it does not reflect the voter’s values. However, an informed person who does not vote still has other modes of political action. The need for active and knowledgeable citizenry transcends the ballot box.
Danny Bugingo | Argonaut
Volunteering for a worthwhile cause, writing a letter to the editor, protesting, attending a religious service, starting a student organization, calling a congressperson and any other involvement in this robust civil society counts just as much as voting.
These are political expressions that make waves in communities and affect policy.
The emphasis on elections leads people to believe that voting is the only form of political expression.
The emphasis on the role of the voter diminishes the role of the journalist, pastor, teacher, newsreader and other agents of communal action, which is fundamentally political action.
Just as Americans vote on the shoulders of civil rights giants, they organize communities on the basis of a constitution with unusual respect for civil liberties that has been upheld only through struggle. The sanctity and urgency citizens assign to voting should spread to all the political freedoms enjoyed in this country.
One’s political identity is bigger and far more important than their vote.
Voters often treat their ballot as a referendum on their own character. This is how the strange situation arises where someone prefers one presidential candidate to the other, but will not vote for that candidate.
When the vote is the locus of political identity, only the most ideologically pure can be chosen. The logical conclusion is the death of compromise and the end of nuance.
Alternatively, voters can accept that the lesser of two evils is also the better of two options, that political identities are more complicated than a ballot and that there are political mechanisms outside of elections.
According to MSNBC, President Lyndon Johnson constantly referred to the 1957 Civil Rights Act as the “nigger bill.” He was casually racist and likely viewed disenfranchised African Americans as more of an electoral gold mine than an oppressed people.
I would have voted for him in a heartbeat.
A vote is not an endorsement, a stamp of approval or a marker of identity. It is an indication of preference. Americans more deeply express the values they want the United States to preserve in conversations, communities and daily lives than on a ballot.
Voting is the final step of participatory democracy — the foot across the finish line. But there’s work to be done beforehand.