Letters.

• Position: Letter to the Editor

Arguments Against Voting in USA Elections

Synthesis/Regeneration,

Participation in America's voting process is a crucial plank in the Green platform, as evidenced by Jason Murphy's "Electoral or Activist" article on the inside cover of the Fall Synthesis/Regeneration.

He claims that by not "Jumping in the electoral arena, activists are dropping the tool that gets to people who others haven't gotten to yet." This would have us believe that the millions of Americans who don't vote are just waiting for a political White Knight, a Ross Perot or Green Party, to follow back into the fray. I'm afraid this optimism has not been tempered by an accurate measurement of the depth of the political disillusion and alienation in America, nor their justifiable causes.

Fundamental to this understanding is deciding whether or not the political game in America is played "on the level" (is a real democracy) or is designed and manipulated to indefinitely maintain the (pro-capitalist parties only) status quo. Jason seems to acknowledge it to be the latter when he writes, "only a hack or cynic would argue that US democracy is anything but a sham." Yet nearing the conclusion of his essay he continues, "Because Greens prioritize democracy, they don't want to sit out any election, national or local." Does this mean that the sham has become a "democracy" or does this mean that Jason is encouraging Greens to participate in a sham?

Back home, folks don't regard those who willingly participate in a known sham or scam as particularly clever; indeed, those who play in a fixed game receive scant sympathy when they are burned. My grandfather always said, "Never play another man's game and expect to win." Greens need to recognize that the scam that parades as "democracy" in America is very much another man's (or class's) game. In this game, when change threatens to rule, the rules are changed, to paraphrase Michael Parenti (Democracy for the Few). Running third-party candidates may initially cause some small reform in election laws, as Jason maintains, but if third parties actually begin to threaten to win major elections, the bar will surely be raised to impossible heights. To ignore this is to deceive oneself about the lengths capitalism will go to to retain absolute political control in America. Capitalism will never abdicate at a ballot box of its own manufacture.

Recognizing all this should be enough to make most political activists reluctant to spend their energies...