Democracy Deferred

William Hogarth: 

The Election: 4. Chairing the Members 1754-1755

I know the following “righteous rant” has been mentioned on several blogs the last couple days, but given the number of politically-minded people stalking this blog I will reproduce it here as well.

Below is a post by Jodi Dean, a professor of political science whose research and writing focuses on “the contemporary space or possibility of politics”. In it, Jodi gives her reasons why she will not be voting in the upcoming U.S elections and laments the death and dying of American democracy at the hands of the hyper-rich financial oligarchy. Jodi blogs regularly at I Cite:

"I'm going to be Istanbul next week, so I won't be here to vote. I'm not going to fill out an absentee ballot, though. I'm not voting. Deliberately. The election won't do anything but secure a false sense of connectedness from those who do vote to the oligarchy that continues to exploit us.

I'm not saying voting doesn't matter. It does--to the pundits who want to talk about it, the networks who amp their ratings through it, the ad makers who collect the money poured in to the campaigns, the corps with enough money to buy their members of congress (who seem to get more expensive the more worthless they become).

Voting matters to all those circulating facebook injunctions to vote, telling us to tell our students to vote. Really? We should lie to them and try to get them to feel that this is change they can believe in? That their choices between fascists, oligarchs, and idiots are choices about what's best for the country? No.

The guy running for re-election in my district is a bad guy blue dog. He's running against a far right nut job. Blue dogs are already hurting the Democrats. No surprise there--they are basically Republicans who caucus with Democrats in order to screw them. I'm not going to hold my nose and vote for him this time. I prefer not to vote at all. No candidate for me, no vote. The dominant choices for governor are Andrew Cuomo and a nut job--the homophobe who emails people porn. Cuomo is pledging more tax cuts. Really? Like that will help NY schools and strapped communities? What about dealing with extreme inequality of wealth in the state? I bet a tax increase of five or ten percent won't even be felt by some of the hedge fund guys down on Wall Street. But their tax dollars would certainly help the rest of us--in the form of schools where kids can learn, roads where we can drive, programs that can provide for the less well off.

If I thought we could get some of this by voting, I'd vote. I've given voting quite a few chances, though, and, get this, things are only getting worse. The more we vote, the worse it gets. Now this could be a correlation rather than causation. But if voting is what has gotten the criminals into office and given them the chance to plunder and exploit, then why should we think that voting will do something different?

Doing nothing would be better--especially if it became a mass strike.

Standing around would be better--especially if it became a rally or a march.

No vote."

I generally agree with Jodi’s assessment of the political spectacle that is modern corporate-democracy. I mean why should we participate in a broken, corrupt and ineffective democratic process when corporate elites and financial managers continue to increase their astounding wealth at the expense of the impoverished, underemployed, marginalized and structurally excluded? Why support what is not working?  Better to let it die than continue to be ruined by it.

My only caveat to Jodi’s comments is that should you or anyone else decide not to vote (which is indeed a protestation against a lack of real choice and capacity to affect change) then PLEASE do TAKE ACTION in some alternative way instead. Get out and join a local non-profit, start a riot or social movement, use tactics of subversion or write passionate letters to representatives, but participate in some way that you find fulfilling and meaningful. Whatever you do, DO SOMETHING. It’s late in the ‘game’ and the good-folk are down on points.

Alternatively, read Adrian Ivakhiv's arguments for voting @ Immanence. Here is one great passage among others:

"Voting is the last step in a long process: figuring out the priorities, talking to people, organizing, communicating, making sure the right people are running for office (or running yourself), supporting them so that they feel connected and indebted to you (and not to the oligarchs who'll turn them into their criminal accomplices), talking to people you disagree with, etc. Maybe I should underline the last point, since it's so out-of-synch with politics in the digital era. Talking, and listening, to people you disagree with.

If you haven't been doing all of that, then you can blame yourself when there's no one to vote for. If you have been doing that and then they still turn around and do the wrong thing, then you haven't done enough yet. The system will continue chugging along on its own until it's changed."

UPDATE 10/29/10: There is a lively debate going on about non-voting over at Larval Subjects (here) and Jodi Dean's orginal post at I Cite (here). What is your position?