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Freedom Action of the Week
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Free-Market.Net's F r e e d o m A c t i o n o f t h e W e e k
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Edited by Mary Lou Seymour. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this
and other lists, click to: http://www.free-market.net/features/lists/
Taking action on Election Day
November 1, 2002
Election day is right around the corner. The airwaves and streets in
meatspace and cyberspace are filled with ads from various
candidates. You can't even go to the grocery store without being
handed a "Vote for Me" card, you can't get on your favorite Net list
without reading about the election, and you certainly can't watch
TV without an endless string of politicos begging for your vote.
I'm not going to add to the cacaphony by urging you to vote, or not
vote, or vote for a particular candidate (heaven forbid.) But, from an
activist point of view, let me point out that Election Day is the one
day when the general public is, for once, focused on thinking about
"public policy:" the issues that affect us all and the electoral
process itself. Heck, in most businesses, employees get "paid
leave time" to go and vote. The topic around the water coolers for
the week before Election Day centers around political opinion ...
from the cynical to the informed to the "I just vote the way my
daddy did," most folks are talking about the upcoming election.
Let's take advantage of this focus to take action for OUR cause,
that of changing our culture to one where freedom-oriented ideas
are the norm.
You may be in the thick of campaigning for a favored candidate that
you feel will restore a bit of freedom to America. If so, then you
already know what actions you're planning for November 5. If you're
not actively involved in a campaign yet, given all the information
lately on "Stolen Elections," those of you who support a particular
candidate or party that is "running to win" should immediately
contact your party's headquarters and offer your services for
Election Day GOTV efforts, poll watching and the like, if you
haven't already done so.
Or, you may simply be working for a "protest vote" for a freedom-
oriented candidate that will be high enough to cause the winners to
tilt their positions in the free market's direction. This point of view is
summed up in Corinne Low's "Fine, Throw Your Vote Away!"
If you'd like to vote as a protest, but there ARE no appropriate
candidates, there are still ways to do so: write in a name, any
name, to show you don't support the "lesser of two evils" (Simon
Jester has a wonderful series of signs on this angle). If write-ins or
"None of the Aboves" aren't allowed in your state without some
kind of hoops to jump through, or aren't allowed at all, print up a
flyer ON that subject and hand it out at the polls.
You might also consider going to the polls and voting for NO
candidates, just on the referenda that are usually on a ballot, often
on scary things like amending the state constitution to allow for a
new tax or fund a "public service bond."
Voting on these type of referenda means you get to make your
opinion known on new taxes or funding bonds for new schools; but,
taking it a step further, you can also print up flyers yourself
explaining the issues in plain language and urging people to vote
for/against (whichever YOU think leads to less government).
These flyers are greatly appreciated by the voters, if not by public
officials, as even the "explanations" offered by the Election
Commissions are usually written in turgid legalese and often
(deliberately or not) fool the voter into voting "yes" when they mean
"no" and vice versa. Simon Jester logos stamped on these flyers
may also be appropriate.
You might also want to mount an "instant campaign" to vote
against incumbents, as explained in L. Neil Smith's "Vote for No
Incumbent." Several years ago, some local friends and I printed up
some stickers that said "Be stupid, elect an incumbent" and
handed them out at the polls. Great fun -- and a few incumbents
actually lost.
But ... what if you've given up on the electoral process completely?
You may believe that the obstacles to free and honest elections
are too great ("Ballot Box Bamboozle"), or that voting itself is a
"Moral Outrage."
Non-voting can itself be a form of protest. This point of view is well
represented by Joe Blow's "It's time to vote -- with your feet." But if
you choose NOT to vote as a protest, remember that actions aren't
effective unless someone notices. Although the press periodically
reports on the "low turnout" in elections ("Voter turnout declines")
this is generally attributed to apathy and indifference, not to a
specific protest against the system or against the state.
So, all you non-voters who are willing to make your personal choice
to not vote public, take action to be noticed! You can affix a little
sticker to your label "Non-voter" (to counter the stickers they hand
out at the poll "I've voted, have you?"); you can picket at the polls
with a "Don't vote it just encourages them" sign, or hand out a "non-
campaign" card with a similar message. Write a quick letter to the
editor explaining why you aren't voting anymore. Call a talk radio
show and explain your position.
If you aren't ready yet to make your choice to not vote known
publicly, you can place your "non-campaign cards" in strategic
places anonymously. The goal is to make people think about non-
voting as a matter of principle. By next Election Day, who knows?
Every poll may have a "non-voting activist" stationed there. (If you
do choose the anonymous route, be sure to stamp the cards with a
Simon Jester logo.)
The point of all of this is simple. Election Day is the ideal day to
take action for the cause of "changing our culture to one of
freedom," no matter what your politics are. Don't just sit it out. It's
too good an outreach opportunity to miss.
Til next week!
For Freedom
Mary Lou
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Links
o Stolen Elections
http://www.free-market.net/rd/630961311.html
o Fine, Throw Your Vote Away!
http://www.free-market.net/rd/282367979.html
o Why settle for the lesser of two evils?
http://www.free-market.net/rd/283758055.html
o Vote for No Incumbent
http://www.free-market.net/rd/491837527.html
o Ballot Box Bamboozle
http://www.free-market.net/rd/527938018.html
o The Moral Outrage of Voting
http://www.free-market.net/rd/59421298.html
o It's time to vote -- with your feet
http://www.free-market.net/rd/973212103.html
o Voter turnout declines
http://www.free-market.net/rd/575281043.html
o Simon Jester Returns
http://www.free-market.net/features/list-archives/activism/msg00069.html
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