Hearing the voices
A new Change Log comic about voting.
Sorry to get political (I try to keep that to my other newsletter), but I go through this every four years, so I need to rant for a minute.
First, before I get into it, I am actually planning to vote this year.
However, if you don’t want to vote, that’s perfectly fine too.
I can’t stand the commercials and campaigns to guilt people into voting because it’s “your civic duty” or whatever.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that we have the ability to vote. I’m grateful for the founding fathers that created our country and for every member of the armed services that fought, bled, and died to preserve our ability to vote.
But when someone tells you that you need to do your duty and vote, what they’re really saying is they expect you to vote how they want you to.
How ever you choose to exercise your voting right is your business. If you choose to vote for a third party, or not vote at all, it all has an affect on the overall balance of how our government is run. And it’s all a valid form of expression.
If voter turnout is 20% it means a vast majority of the people either don’t feel represented or don’t like the way the process is run. It’s the job of the politicians to look at that and figure out a way to earn those votes back. And that might change how they behave in office. Heaven forbid they actually have to do some work.
Would it be better if everyone in the country informed themselves on the issues and actually found candidates that represented their values?
Sure.
But that’s not the world in which we live.
It would be great if everyone voted for the people I plan to vote for. I have specific people that I want to win for specific reasons. But if I want to convince you to vote for them, I would not use guilt to do it.
So anyway, I’m looking forward to a couple weeks from now when I don’t have to see these politicians lying about each other every five minutes when I just want to watch a football game. Or a bunch of football players telling me that not enough people voted in the last election so we all gotta “do our part”.
All this reminds me of one of the best Simpsons episodes where it turns out the two presidential nominees are both aliens and the people still vote for them because… what are you gonna do… throw your vote away?
So do what you want. Vote. Vote third party. Don’t vote at all. And don’t feel guilty about it.
If you think I’m an idiot, feel free to let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading! If you want to see more of my artwork/sketches/ramblings, follow me on X and here on Substack Notes. And if you really want to support me, I have a store!
Also, if you’re into political cartoons, I have another newsletter called Political Nomad with a new comic every Thursday.
Have a great week!
-Brad