Voting for the lesser evil

I often hear that it is one’s civic duty to vote. This platitude is often followed by grave entreaties to “save democracy.”

How frequently have you said during an election year that you’re voting for the lesser of two evils? Everyone I know grits their teeth and fills in the bubble for candidates they don’t want.

This saying most strongly applies to presidential elections but can trickle down to even the lowest levels of government.

When someone punts their conscience to this saying, I posit another: Voting for the lesser of two evils can only bring evil.

The two political parties only change when they lose. This truth runs counter to intuition.

If a party has a winning platform, they have no incentive to change it. It matters little to the political bosses if they win by enthusiastic support or begrudging party allegiance.

If the tired yet reliable voter base coughs up the last percentage points needed to win every election, the political leadership will conclude their platform is well adapted. If you want your party to change in any meaningful direction, don’t vote unless you really believe in a candidate’s platform.

This maxim applies to more than just voting: If you don’t approve of something, don’t give it your approval.

The two-party system is notoriously stale and slow-moving. Voter turnout hovers dismally around 30% every election. The broader public, for one reason or another, has concluded voting is not worth their time or is an exercise in futility.

If you are a consistent voter, your choice has an outsized impact relative to the average citizen. Withholding your vote and telling others to do so is one of the few ways you can flex your muscle.

When candidates only serve the donors’ interests, do not feel obligated to give them the rubber stamp of popular approval. When one votes for a candidate, that vote is also for the system that consistently neglects the needs and concerns of the average citizen.

Detractors may say that if one fails to vote for Candidate X, the other side wins. This rhetoric only exists to keep you comfortably on the two-party reservation.

The other side may indeed win. One must keep in mind the other side’s term will only be for a few short years and will likely get lost in the mire of partisan gridlock anyway.

However, if you vote for one of two evils, you certainly lose. When your political party of choice loses, they will be forced to figure out why.

If you reliably give these political abusers your approval, they take it for granted. Make politicians work a little harder for your vote.

Joe McGraw is a staff writer at the Daily American Republic. He can be reached at jmcgraw@darnews.com.