Warning: Political Opinion (Controversial)
Some context: left-wing feminist out of London, UK. This post directly relates to the General Election in the UK today, but is also relevant to the current political climate in Europe and North America (and potentially elsewhere, but I’m not going to claim knowledge I don’t have).
DO NOT CASTIGATE PEOPLE FOR VOTING FOR POLITICAL PARTIES WITH DIFFERENT POLICIES/ VIEWS/ BELIEFS THAN YOURS.
They voted. They exercised their democratic rights and voted for the constituency candidate that they believe will do the best job.
Maybe they’re also a really loud conspiracy theorist with whom you have twitter wars. Maybe they’re voting tactically, against a specific candidate - rather than for the candidate they actually selected. Maybe they’re spoiling their ballot, out of protest or anger. Maybe they’ve drawn a dick in a box. (It still counts BTW:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/welsh-voter-inadvertently-helps-to-re-elected-tory-mp-after-drawing-penis-on-ballot-paper-10238218.html)
They also fulfilled their democratic responsibility. They took political action. The most basic political action - but they were active. Political apathy is as dangerous as extreme politics. Because it too facilitates politics that are representative of the minority, not the whole. Democracy is a right, an inheritance we received because those who came before us fought for equal representation under the law. One man, (one woman), one vote.
Those people whom you so despise in the vast echo chamber of the internet did not squander that inheritance. Did you?
In your echo chambers, you and yours loudly proclaim your allegiance, secure in the rightness of your politics. But on election day: how many of you are too busy, can’t be bothered, didn’t even register, forgot? Are you complacent, so sure that your single vote doesn’t count that you don’t bother? Surely, your inaction doesn’t matter.
But like bystander apathy, this apathy is also cumulative. How many who bemoaned Brexit did not actually vote in the referendum, when legally entitled to do so? I think that number is a lot larger than we are all willing to admit.
Having a political opinion is important and good for a democratic society - but for gods sake put your vote where your mouthpiece is. Vote. It is your responsibility.
The pen is mightier than the sword, especially the pen on a ballot paper.
