Question

Why do anarchists not vote?

Comments

Some wit noted that the minute the Soviet Union fell apart freedom in the free world became much more expensive. Our constitutional rights have been indefinitely suspended, the entire voting system has been gerrymandered to death, congress has given the military the legal right to round citizens up like cattle and made all the necessary preparations, every police department is now using warrantless wiretaps and searches, the pentagon has sold them surplus military gear at cut rate prices, and the billionaire mayor of NYC arrested 26 reporters in one day only to receive a slap on the wrist, while the bankers that committed fraud and collapsed the world economy never saw a day in jail.

Frankly, I can't afford to vote and just don't see the point when in over ten years of asking nobody has been able to tell me the simple distinction between a lynch mob and democracy.

Answer 1

i do not vote because...

- i refuse to choose a master/ruler over myself.

- i refuse to participate in a process which defines, legitimizes, supports and perpetuates one of the most prevalent institutional hierarchies in existence.

- even if i believed in this shithole system - which i very strongly do NOT - the u.s. electoral system is in fact designed to ensure that those in power have the final say (see electoral college, superdelegates, etc). 

plus the ubiquitous emma quote.

and this one, from "anarchists never vote":

"No candidate will ever represent our lust for not being represented, none of them could ever represent faithfully two individuals at the same time. No election will ever make us free, will ever give us back our lives. The question is not to vote for whom or for what, the question is why vote?"

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edited to add another thought:

voting is pretty much by definition not an anarchist act. so while one may identify as anarchist and vote, their act of voting is explicitly not anarchist.

most or all of us do things in our daily lives that are not anarchist. i try my best to make sure that when i do act in such ways, those acts are not directly encouraging/supporting/strengthening that which stands in the way of my autonomy.