This is the cliché that friends and family usually snap back when they discover that I opt out of the federal election scam. Somehow, I am considered un-American for not mindlessly endorsing the Statist policies of "the lesser of two evils" every few years.
Like most Americans, they are fed the "get out and vote" mantra through all levels of the media. Movie stars and taxpayer-funded ad campaigns implore Americans to make their voices heard on election day. And on the big day, dutiful citizens make their way to the red, white and blue decorated polling places and then justify the State's encroachment and violence with a quick pull of the lever.
As a former voter, I understand the appeal. I voted Libertarian from 1996 to 2002 and (gag) Democrat before that. I still agree with 85% of the LP platform, but the party's minarchist philosophy and support of government elections conflict with the true anarcho-capitalism and libertarianism promoted by LewRockwell.com, the Mises Institute, Strike the Root and Karen De Coster.
The main reason I choose not to participate is because at the very least I will not endorse the State and its violence against others through taxation, legislation and outright assaults. You might vote for Kerry because you hate Bush, but your vote for Kerry is a vote for all Kerry stands for - including stealing your neighbor's wealth to continue a failed social security scheme, to reward well-connected businesses through corporate welfare or to increase government control over our health care choices.
The segment in the title image above is from the 1936 U.S.S.R. Constitution (the "Stalin Constitution") and demonstrates the hollowness of so-called universal suffrage. Without liberty and private property, voting only perpetuates the illusion of individuals controlling their own lives in a statist society.
Anarcho-Capitalism = liberty[Top]
Obviously, my entire web site exists to show that the free-market triumphs over statism. Here are a few articles regarding anarcho-capitalism...
Anarcho-Capitalism
anarchism Date: 1642
A political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups
capitalism Date: 1877
An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market
Defining Anarchy The chaos in New Orleans is not due to anarchy, it is an example of the failure of statist-government. - Mark Davis, September 8, 2005 [Strike the Root]
Enabling Evil - Paul Craig Roberts, June 14, 2005 [LewRockwell.com]
Suckers Voting has nothing to do with being free. It has everything to do with providing a ritual to substantiate control by elite. - Mark Davis, May 27, 2005 [Strike the Root]
You voted for socialism - Mark D. Valenti, November 14, 2004 [Beaver County Times & Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]
The Enemy Is the State We do not need to help the state propaganda machine, the mainstream media, by doing their job for them, to distract people from the real problem--the state. - weebies, November 11, 2004 [Strike the Root]
A Vote For Not Voting Instead of getting out the vote, we can get in the non-vote. - Ira Katz, October 16, 2004 [LewRockwell.com]
Every Vote Is Sacred Every vote for the president is wasted. The system is corrupt. Stay home and exercise your freedom as a human being to not vote for he who will oppress you. - Jeff Langr, October 4, 2004 [Strike the Root]
Act Responsibly: Don’t Vote! Non-voting has a rich and long history through which the dissenting electorate has expressed everything from religious convictions to political cynicism. - Wendy McElroy, September 21, 2004 [LewRockwell.com]
Rock the Non-Vote If you weren't planning to vote, then, instead of mumbling apologetically when asked about it, proudly tell others why you aren't. - Gene Callahan, August 18, 2004 [LewRockwell.com]
Think Outside the Booth Government is holding an election this fall and expects us to participate. - George F. Smith, August 17, 2004 [Strike the Root]
Bush or Kerry? The media has done its best – for at least a year now – to whip up public enthusiasm for this quadrennial ritual that does little more than confirm in the minds of witless souls that they are running the state! - Butler Shaffer, August 13, 2004 [LewRockwell.com]
Voting Is an Act of Violence Regardless of one's preferred candidate, the act of casting a vote legitimizes an inherently evil institution. - Brian Drake, July 30, 2004 [Strike the Root]
The Con Game Called Democracy Given that democracy is pointless, and participation in it a sign of a weak mind, what is the wisest attitude toward the government? - Fred Reed, June 24, 2004 [LewRockwell.com]
The True Opiate of the Masses But voting is not the only way we unwittingly aggress on our neighbors, friends and co-workers. We also do so through ignorance of history, not just in the formation of the united States of America , but with respect to the history of Common Law, Equity Law and Maritime Law--the three types of law guaranteed in the Constitution. - David C. Moorman, May 6, 2004 [Strike the Root]
What Should Freedom Lovers Do? ...we need more professors, business owners, fathers and mothers, religious leaders, and entrepreneurs. The party of liberty loves commerce and culture, not the state. Commerce and culture is our home and our launching ground for social reform and revolution. - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., April 20, 2004 [Mises]
Why Honor Politicians? Sadly, in the country that America is today—or may in fact have always been when we take a closer look—it is entirely gratuitous to cast politicians and bureaucrats as heroes. - Tibor R. Machan, February 24, 2004 [Mises]
My Early Vote Against Everyone There are two levels of political discourse in America: the real world and the federal election. - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., December 20, 2003 [LewRockwell.com]
Why I Won’t Vote - Jesse Ogden, October 8, 2003 [LewRockwell.com]
Reflections on a Choice I was a writer in my school’s newspaper then, and on a whim I submitted an article called "Why I Won’t Vote." - Jesse Ogden, October 6, 2003 [LewRockwell.com]
Peeling Off My Capital "L" My Hoppean secession from party politics isn't an abandonment of the battle for liberty. On the contrary: It's redeployment to the front lines. - Andrew Rogers, November 18, 2002 [Strike-the-Root.com]
Voting = Status Quo Voting only results in more of the status quo: more empty promises, more taxes, more government, more spending, more entitlements, more hegemony, more global policemen, more wars, more expensive “solutions” to nonexistent and/or induced problems that only Leviathan can devise and impose on its citizens forever. - Joe Blow, November 5, 2002 [Strike-the-Root.com]
Why I Will Not Vote! Today is my independence day, I am declaring my independence from the men who have enslaved my mind for so long and soon I hope to free my body as well. - Patrick K Martin, November 4, 2002 [The Libertarian Enterprise]
Don't Vote! We allow the state to teach our children that majority rule in political government is good, proper, and fair. The state does not teach our children that the authors of the Constitution were mortally afraid of majority rule and that they expended every effort to prevent it, an effort which was subsequently subverted. - Robert Klassen, October 4, 2002 [LewRockwell.com]
The Moral Outrage of Voting You, who so proudly voted for "Liberty". No matter which candidate you endorsed, by voting in that public election, you implicitly affirmed your approval of the process that allows your liberty to be stripped from you. - John Lopez, August 12, 2002 [The Libertarian Enterprise]
Dear Voters... If you vote, you are a terrorist. Voting is nothing more than endorsing the evil State’s desire to use force against a private citizen. - Timothy Richard, October 9, 2001 [anti-state.com]
Fighting for the Right to Vote? Why a majority should have the right do what a burglar could not do singly was a good question. - Joseph R. Stromberg, December 12, 2000 [Mises]
Why Politics Fail The system of voting is designed to replicate the market's participatory features. In fact, it is a perverse distortion of the market system. - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., January 1999 [Mises]
End of the Mandate ...we will not pay homage to the leviathan the first week in November. Then the "mandate" to plunder the American people will become the stuff of history. - Gregory Bresiger, November 1998 [Mises]
The Alzheimer's vote And because most states, including Pennsylvania, constitutionally guarantee the right of every citizen to vote, election officials are very reluctant to disenfranchise dementia patients -- even when they are declared unfit by a court order or placed under the care of a legal guardian. - Bill Steigerwald, October 17, 2004 [Pittsburgh Tribune Review]
End Women’s Suffrage Now! I’m probably going to go down into the man-hating hall of fame with this next piece, but here goes: women should not have the right to vote. - Jeremy Sapienza, August 14, 2000 [LewRockwell.com]
Many deceased voters on rolls
Punch-card ballots, provisional voting biggest issues in Ohio, experts say. - Aaron Kessler, October 17, 2004 [The Joplin Globe]
Election might be full of problems Investigation shows votes cast under registrations of the dead. - Mark Niquette, October 10, 2004 [The Columbus Dispatch]
One person, one vote? Not always Some cast two ballots in a single election. - Greg Reeves, September 6, 2004 [Kansas City Star]
The Fair & Balanced Election Conservatives seem to be good at only two things: (1) They celebrate victory when all they’ve done is start toward some goal; and (2) They never run out of excuses when the plan fails. - Harry Browne, February 2, 2005 [LewRockwell.com]
