The Freedom to Vote -- or not (11.10.08)

One of the great freedoms of democracy is the freedom to not participate. Don’t want to vote? Fine.

As a democratic society, we are encouraged to vote. To participate. But, when it’s all said and done, if you don’t want to participate then you don’t have to.

And, like most ideas that involve a choice, there are good choices and poor choices. Such is the case with voting.


Our system of government allows us to choose to vote and because of that, we are free to make the poor choice and not vote.

If you choose not to vote or to participate in our representative democracy, then that is your prerogative. It is your right to choose to participate.

For some of us, voting is not seen as a choice as much as it is seen as a duty. You may ask why – especially those of you who choose to not participate. Fair enough.

To me there are two events that have occurred within a week of one another that are closely linked – the general election on Nov. 4 and the observance of Veterans’ Day on Nov. 11.

I suppose I have an over-developed sense of patriotism and pride in my country. I grew up in North Alabama – Courtland and Decatur – and, of course, am familiar with the famous quote from Stephen Decatur: “Our country. In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.”

My education instilled in me a strong sense of the need for participation in our democratic system of government. Not because it was a right, necessarily, but because so many had fought for so long to get the right to a participatory system of government, that it was almost un-American not to vote.

In our desire to govern ourselves, our colonial leaders led us into the Revolutionary War and we have been fighting for our participatory system of government ever since.

Women struggled mightily to earn the right to vote. Against threats, intimidation and humiliation, they finally earned that right with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

African-Americans struggled for the right to choose whether to vote. Despite threats, intimidation and murder, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965.

After learning all of that, I absolutely counted down the days the months and the years until I could vote.

It was 1984. Reagan/Bush vs. Mondale/Ferraro. I walked in, cast my vote and felt a great sense of pride that I was carrying on our tradition of a participatory democracy. I was carrying on a right that my countrymen had fought and died for, and it is a right that other countries fight and die for.

It is unfortunate then that even as a fairly young country who has given its citizens the right to choose to participate to see so many people make the poor choice and not participate.

That is until Nov. 4, 2008.

How exciting it was to see long lines at the polls, to see people waiting before the polls opened and to see record numbers of people go to the polls. How exciting it was to read stories of people who voted for the first time, who made the right choice – the choice to honor this country’s right to vote.

How incredibly exciting it was to take my 14-year-old daughter to the polls with me and have her be as excited as I was.

And I guess this is why I take it so seriously and see voting as a duty. It honors those who have lived, fought, and died for my – for your -- freedom to choose to participate. My choice to vote, to participate in the democratic process, sets an example to others – my family, my friends, and others. On Nov. 4, 2008, no matter whom you voted for, other countries looked at the United States and saw participatory democracy in action.

I understand why someone would choose not to vote. Too busy. Too tired. Too discouraged. Or as one misguided columnist recently suggested – too objective. But here’s the thing. . .before I was a journalist. Before I was a salesman. Before I was a marketer. I was an American. And I choose to vote to honor those Americans who came before me to ensure that I had that choice.