Re: AUT: AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER

[Newdem@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 3/27/2004 11:52:31 PM Eastern Standard Time,
lautrenom@xxxxxxxxx writes:
So I am confused here.  You say electoral democracy is a sham and no change
can come through the electoral system.  But isn't non-voting as much a part of
the electoral system as voting?  Certainly it might leave less of a sour taste
in your mouth if you care about such things.  But if not voting could really
change anything, wouldn't they make it illegal?Voting to abstain seems to me
to legitimise the electoral system even more than voting to not abstain does.
It seems to offer the promise that if enough people refuse, then the majority
will can prevail or at least be represented.  But the real problem with
electoral democracy is that the "people's will" is really a will-a-wisp and
representing it only cements the fetishism on which it rests.  The cynics who vote for
their local lesser evil at least make no such grandiose claim, only that
genocide will occur more slowly, fewer avenues for workers to organise will be
forclosed, etc.  Maybe if someone could say what practical
benefits I might receive through non-voting, other that the sweet taste of
self-indulgence, I would be inclined to take this movement more seriously.

josh
Josh--

We are not calling on people simply not to vote, but to announce to their
friends and family and the world why they are not voting: that we live in a fake
democracy, in which they refuse to participate. We intend MassRefusal/2004
(massrefusal.org) to be one of many steps in building the movement for real
democracy.

The idea that we live in a democracy and that the policies of the government
reflect the will of the people is one of the great illusions in our society;
to the extent that the illusion persists, it profoundly demoralizes and
demobilizes people. Exposing the fraudulence of the supposed democracy is an
important step in helping people realize that the government's vicious policies do not
reflect the will of the people, that those who oppose the governement are not
alone, and that it is possible to build a succesful movement to challenge
capitalist power.

Dave Stratman
Editor, New Democracy
newdemocracyworld.org
5 Burr Street
Boston, MA 02130
617-524-4073


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