October 28, 2012
INDEED, THERE'S A CIVIC DUTY NOT TO VOTE...:
Voting is a right, but it's not a duty (Jeff Jacoby, OCTOBER 28, 2012, Boston Globe)
As Harvard economist Greg Mankiw points out, even reliable voters who never miss an election will often skip down-ballot races about which they have little or no information."In practice, this means that you are relying on your fellow citizens to make the right choice," Mankiw writes. "But this can be perfectly rational. If you really don't know enough to cast an intelligent vote, you should be eager to let your more-informed neighbors make the decision." If that's the case when it comes to elections for registrar of deeds or county commissioner, why not in contests for state representative, US senator, or president? Like buying stocks or undergoing surgery, the election of government officials can have serious consequences. We don't hector Americans to make uninformed decisions about investments or medical treatment. What advantage is there in badgering people with no interest in candidates or elections to vote anyway?"But it's your civic duty to vote!"No, it isn't. You have the right to vote, not a duty to do so.
...if one is uninformed, though there ought to be tests to weed them out.
Posted by Orrin Judd at October 28, 2012 8:28 PM
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