This "Not Voting" thing....

I don't vote anymore. No, really… I mean it.

Since I turned 19 I have voted in pretty much every election. November 15th, 2014 was the first time I refused to cast a ballot.  It was hard. A lot of people that I respect encouraged me to get out and "rock my vote". I didn't and I won’t.

I think it must be mostly my own personalty defects causing this. I have a bit of a narcissism problem. I love being right. I also get frustrated when things I believe in are subverted or taken away from me. I have had a hard time understanding why I feel so strongly about not voting, and an even harder time explaining it. If you are interested,  take my hand and come along, gentle reader. I will take you on a little tour of Crazytown, Canada, population: one.  (Otherwise known at “the way Tim sees it”.)

I see flaws in our supposedly democratic system that are so entrenched that people look right past them. By choosing to vote I am choosing to support that system and I won't do that anymore. I will not endorse the chicanery, dirty tricks, manipulation and default dishonesty offered by all involved.

I used to believe my vote was valuable and important. I have come to believe it is something political parties see to be manipulated or disregarded. For most of my life the outcome of an election has left me feeling like I have been hitting myself in the head with a hammer. From now on, I won't pick up the hammer. I think I'll just keep my vote for myself.This choice is not made through apathy, but rather the opposite.

This isn't to say that I don't have political opinions. I totally do, but I have come to view the political parties as kind of like a walk in the dog park. There's shit everywhere, with many different colours of shit to choose from. You  might find certain crap is downright horrifying, other piles of poop less so. You pick the colour from your own dog because that's your colour of shit. It doesn't change the fact that you're juggling turds.The only solution against it is to not own a dog, and that's what I'm trying to do. (It is now important to offer my sincerest apologies to my living, non-metaphorical pooch. He's totally a keeper.)

I know that my quitting voting was sparked by my emotional response to the last BC Provincial Election. I have since had time to cool down and consider why I don't want to engage anymore. With sober second thought, I have managed to put my finger on what’s got me so mad: 

A lack of proportional representation in our first-past-the-post system keeps me away.  The parties that offer ideas I support take a large portion of the popular vote… just not enough to win. In our system they are generally considered “unelectable". This would be fair and acceptable under a system where the amount of popular public support my choices enjoy is reflected by influence in the legislature. But that sure doesn’t happen. Looking at the outcomes of the last few elections I voted in, generally speaking the “winners” got about 40 to 45% of the popular vote (much less if you consider the people who abstain from voting). They then receive 100% of the legislative power. When they win they do whatever the hell they want unhindered by such pesky things as considering the needs, views and desires of the 55% (or more) of the citizenry who did not support them. 

I always land in that large group of “losers” and I’m fed up. I never feel like the villains who run our governments are representing me. My group (the 55-60%  of citizens who don’t support the "winners" of the election) are not considered at all except as enemies to be to marginalized, vilified and disregarded. Our non-proportional system creates false “majority governments”. It fails to represent diverse, engaged, large portions of the electorate in a way that results in fair legislation for all the stakeholders. I won't support it any more.

Money, marketers and war rooms build our governments.  Here’s one of those obvious secrets that everyone looks past: big business and union interests pay for most of the campaigns of the powerful parties. Money wins elections for parties by paying for professional campaign specialists and massive ad campaigns. So… parties with ideologies that tend to support to big and wealthy business interests get massive financial support from big and wealthy businesses. Parties that are pro-labour get big bucks from the large unions (although I would assert that this pool of cash is much smaller than the business support at the other end). Parties that support low and middle-income workers, environmentalists and social justice tend to get financial support from, well… the unions, I guess… and not much else. Guess who gets more money for campaigns and who forms majority government most often. Hint? It’s the business group.

Blafflegab and mean-spiritedness drown out real discourse and sway the voters who are willing to believe it. Once the issues to be marketed have been carefully framed in the war-room (by the campaign contributors and parties, not by the citizens), lies, smears and branded political product are foisted upon the voter in relentless waves at election time. Everything is “on message” and politicians never diverge from their list of talking points. Honesty, integrity and candour are scarce. Don’t believe me? Try to get a candidate from a big party to comment  meaningfully on a difficult issue that isn’t in their platform. Also… low-level candidates that are unlikely to win the back bench (but could potentially  diverge from the script) are muzzled and often won’t attend all candidates meetings.

Often the information wave is just plain misleading or untrue. Often it is wrapped in condescension and moral judgement, which motivates voters emotionally but leaves facts distorted or even ignored.  Also… it is a sad fact that negative attack ads win elections for bad people. If you want to be the nice politician who doesn’t engage in negative attack ads, you better be ready to be the nice politician who finishes last.

Political parties exist to serve themselves and their financial backers, not the electorate. We are the tail that is wagged by the dog. Except for brief moments at election time, the political parties try to ignore the fact that an elected official is supposed to represent the residents of their riding and not the leader of the political party (or the campaign donors that put our politicians in power).  Once they are elected it is all “ Hail to the Chief!”

This brings me to the distillation of what has been bouncing around in my head for about a year and a half. It has been hard to get a handle on, but I think I have it in a paragraph:

Elections are the only mechanism (or barrier) that must be endured by  moneyed interests and their political parties. To achieve their objectives these interest groups rig the game as much as is possible using mountains of cash and slick campaign media.  This allows them to weasel about 40% of the votes from the 60% of citizens who actually vote. In our outdated and flawed first-past-the-post electoral system this entitles them to 100% of the governing power with a non-proportional “majority government”. Once this is achieved the moneyed interest group can rely on the party they put in power to legislate according to their interests, which may not actually serve the public good. In our non-proportional legislative system this is done immune from input or influence from the majority of citizens (who actually voted against the government.) That’s the group I am a member of: the losing majority. Election after fucking election.

I’m not trying to tell you not to vote. That’s your choice. I am not looking for followers, just some understanding.  Crazytown, Canada is a bit of a lonely and paranoid place. I wish I saw things differently, but (after a great deal of thought) I don’t. Is it right to be the kid who takes his ball home because he doesn't like the game? Maybe, maybe not. But that's just what I am doing. 

It is, after all, a free country.