This is my article in the 14 December 2011 edition of the Business Mirror.
I was recently asked: “Why should I bother to vote when nothing ever changes?” The dissatisfaction was so thick in that query that I thought it would be a good idea to write about what I call the three roots of voter frustration in order to provide the answer.
The first root of frustration is the tendency to think of our individual votes in isolation. We always refer to our ballot as being just one vote versus the votes of millions who might or might not agree with us. Given that frame of mind, frustration would be practically inevitable.
The first step, therefore, to getting over that feeling is to realize that your one vote isn’t all alone. As with many other small and seemingly insignificant things, the power of one vote acting alone may be all but non-existent, but in enough numbers, individual votes can change the course of history.
Take a look at all the upset victories in elections past where dark-horse candidate, running against better-funded and better-organized opponents, powered their way to decisive wins. Strip away all the Monday morning quarterbacking and the most basic reason for these victories was that the people voted in such numbers that attempts to cheat—whether through vote-buying, or intimidation, or straight-out results manipulation—simply couldn’t skew the outcome enough to change it. This underscores the truth that elections are still ultimately won by votes.
The second root of frustration is that the people who value their right to vote seem to be in the minority.
For the vast majority of Filipinos, there is a gaping disconnect between the value of their right of suffrage and their appreciation of that value. Most blame poverty. Because people are poor, the reasoning goes, they willingly sell their votes. There is some truth to this, of course, but time and again, people have turned down bribes simply because they wanted to vote for someone else, even without getting paid.
So it’s not just about the money, but voter preference. Money seems to be accepted when there isn’t any more attractive alternative, such as a candidate they can rally behind. Votes are clearly considered either a commodity that can be sold, or a meaningless thing that can, therefore, be left unused, given away, or used cluelessly.
Look at those upset victories again.
Because they constituted a clear majority, the people who voted for those dark horses must have come from both kinds of voters: those who understood the true worth of their vote, and the clueless who didn’t. How did that happen?
The individual circumstances may vary, but the one constant in those upsets is that the winners captured the hearts of the voters in a way that was impossible to fake with slick television commercials or cash. They managed to convince the people that they truly represented what the voter wanted. In doing so, these candidates essentially trumped the guns, the goons, and the gold.
The lesson there is that when people are not presented with a candidate they can rally behind, then they will, perhaps unconsciously, allow themselves to be more mercenary with their votes, or to simply not care about it at all. And voila! They get the officials they deserve.
When that happens, principled voters are massively frustrated. They voted wisely, but the majority didn’t and so they’re stuck with the outcome they tried to avoid by voting.
Which brings me to the third root of frustration: perpetuated idiocy. Simply put, politicians like clueless voters. It makes winning easier, which is why they pander to them endlessly. As a result, more and more people are frustrated and they slide deeper into the kind of cynicism that predisposes them to losing all appreciation for the power of their vote. And when the principled voters diminish, the clueless ones grow in number, thereby making it even easier for politicians to stay in their positions.
Which brings me back to the question: “Why should I bother to vote when nothing ever changes?”
Quite simply, you start voting and keep on voting because it is the only strategy that stands a chance of breaking this vicious cycle of frustration that dumbs the electorate down and allows bad governance to persist. Politicians must do their part, of course, but the traditional ones might find that a little too much against their interests. The ones that offer real hope, on the other hand, need all the help they can get. And, of course, no matter how chic it may seem to be angsty, the bottom line is if you give in to the frustration and give up voting, then you become exactly like the people you despise.
Far from solving anything, you become part of the problem.
QED.