It's time to elect the "leader of the free world" again. How wonderfully contradictory by the way. Everywhere you look there are proclamations that you need to get out there, exercise your fundamental right and vote. After all, I learned in High School government class that if you don't vote you can't complain about the political system. We cheer when nations around the world hold their first elections - finally liberty and justice for all! We've rallied to war under the battle cry of "making the world safe for democracy." People just have to be able to vote. Anything less would be uncivilized. Our own nation's past with respect to the right to vote is anything but perfect. At one point only property owning white males could vote, but over time we have seen the light and opened it up every adult. Occasionally, there will be an uproar over attempts to restrict voting only to those with identification, and it makes for exciting news stories.
Now I take no umbrage with everyone having the privilege to vote, but I can no longer stomach the cognitive dissonance required to embrace voting as the be-all and end-all of human rights. For instance, while we have been arguing over which individuals should have the opportunity to have zero influence over the make up of government by voting, we have had military conscription. Now to be fair we don't currently have the draft, but there are politicians who salivate at reinstating it in one form or another.
What good is the right to choose your masters without the right to your own life?
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