Culture and Religion
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Why Should I Vote?
The BreakPoint answer: Yes, because 'If you don't vote, you are abandoning the biblical obligation to be a responsible citizen.' The answer continues 'In a republic we are to elect representatives who will rise above the passions of the moment. They are to be men and women of character and virtue, men and women who will act responsibly and even nobly as they carry out the best interests of the people.'
In the early years of our republic, the central government was not so strong, lacking sufficient funds to wreak havoc on its populace. The Founding Fathers had intended a limited government, just for protection and security, not interference. By the beginning of the 20th century, the central government was steadily gaining power, having been given sufficient income via growing taxes. Through the course of the century, the involvement in several wars coalesced the political and military influences to create what Eisenhower called the military industrial complex, having its symbiotic relationship with the bureaucracy.
In the 21st century, the various levels of government are now on the verge of bankruptcy. The democratic republic model of governance has elected caretakers to be responsible for the interest of the people. Unfortunately, in practice, their decisions have the government at the highest priority (to maintain their power as well as that of their political partners), then their supporters (often businessmen benefitting from the level of corporate welfare provided at the cost of funding for their representatives) and finally the public at the lowest priority.
In this state of pending disarray, the decision to vote can depend on whether an elected representative can turn around the two centuries of decline to return to a limited form of government. Our central government is now snared in foreign military adventures, even as the extravagant deficit spending threatens to bankrupt even the national treasury.
The solution to this failure of our democracy would be a libertarian social order, without the central state possessing such power and influence.
The intermediate level of governance might be to create smaller units of civil organization, a succession state, that has removed itself from the larger inefficient, bankrupt (morally and financially) state. Such a transition would require brave and indomitable representatives. It remains to be seen whether such can be found in an election, worthy of a vote.
The original link in case the article ever returns to Breakpoint:
(http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Parents &CONTENTID=10795&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm)
created - Mar 2005
last change - 03/06/2005
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