[CrackMonkey] Lindsey Graham

[Mike Goldman]

Seth David Schoen wrote:

> I think my present position is close to "Voting is wrong, but it does not
> in itself constitute consent".

Consent for the PROCESS, certainly.  Look, nobody is FORCING people to vote.  So
if you do it, you have willingly accepted the rules.  It's like, when someone
offers you a deal, and you accept the benefits, you acquire the obligation.

> We had a long debate on ucb-libertarian about whether voting was moral (and,
> if moral, whether commendable), and whether voting constituted consent.

Morality is a separate subject entirely, and whether it is commendable depends
entirely on the perspective of those commending and the circumstances.  I
personally do not commend voting in political elections which are designed to
promote certain "parties" and candidates, exclude others, and leave off the table
altogether any objections to the process.  I do participate in voting (and
commend it) within organizations that have a process I judge fair, and where I
consent to the result even if it is adverse to my preference.

> It's very clear to me that "If you don't vote, you can't complain" is bogus.
> (That doesn't stop it from being popular; I've been told that six or seven
> times when I told people I didn't vote.)  OTOH I don't think that that
> implies "If you do vote, you can't complain", and I haven't seen that
> justified in a way that entirely convinced me.

You CAN complain, no matter what, but whether you have proper STANDING to
complain depends again on what you are complaining about.  If you vote for one
candidate, and he or she does not win, I think you have standing to complain that
the specific policies of the winner are disagreeable.  On the other hand, you do
NOT have standing in this case to complain about the legitimacy and propriety of
the winner exercising his or her authority in the manner that he or she sees fit.

So if you voted for George Bush pere or Robert Dole (but WHY?), you can
reasonably be expected to disagree with King William, but you are being
disingenuous if you call him what I just did, for instance.

> But there are a variety of different sorts of "complaining" and different
> grounds on which to complain.  Some of those are inconsistent with voting,
> and some aren't.  (Some of them could be inconsistent with not voting,
> maybe.)

Exactly.

The Libertarian Party candidate in 1996 was Harry Browne, once wrote a book
called, "Why Government Doesn't Work."  In it, he ridiculed those who talk about
what they would do, "If I Were King."  Then he ran a campaign in which he talked
about what he would do if he were President.  Just bizarre.  They should all vote
NOTA if he runs again in 2000.