-- Download Justice for Those Who Don't Vote as PDF --

Barry Link sums up my views of the huge minority of British Columbians who have insulted us all by not voting last month. I respect his analysis of the state of citizens’ relationship with the electoral process. But there are three additional points to make.

First, I disagree with Link’s claim that the media is less cozy with government now compared to the past. I find no reason to stop referring to CanWest as Campbell’s neoLiberal Ministry of Information. The cliche about not seeking conspiracy when incompetence can fully explain an event is poignant here. While not examining incompetence, there is no need to seek a deep conspiracy between the government and circus that pretends to be a independent, free press in BC; it takes no brain surgeon to recognize that Campbell’s neoLiberals and CanWest share the same economic and social ideals. They need never even speak to each other: CanWest will support their saviour government like Mairkin Theo-Cons maniacally support w.Caesar down south. Turns out every once in a while we find evidence of a tangible link between CanWest and the neoLiberal party, but that hardly matters. The local media junta will forever support the government as fast as its editorial board will declare a premier’s drunk driving Maui debacle a dead story. Shame.

Second, in cataloging all the reasons why our society is well-off, Link doesn’t really go far enough. Our luxury is our complacency. Democracy evolved out of the need to achieve justice in an oppressive day. When the majority is living well and salivating over the Hummers crumbling our streets, there is less obvious need to “be” political. Campbell’s neoLiberal goons championed this by not showing up to all-candidates meetings all over the province and trumpeting the “Golden Decade” hysteria, just to remind us that voting is not required. We should just stay home, watch the lottery commercials on TV and think about which Yaletown penthouse we’ll buy when we build the better mousetrap or get bought out by some Mairkin corporate giant.

Third, the disastrously huge minority of people who didn’t vote, in one sense, did vote: they voted for Campbell’s neoLiberal junta. The BC government believes in undermining social interconnectedness. What better way to support that ideology than by not voting. We all get what we deserve. This is where Link’s last line in his article is quite poignant, his sentiments towards the non-voters: “To hell with you.”

I share his views. Good for him.

Finis
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Stephen Elliott-Buckley

Post-partisan eco-socialist. at Politics, Re-Spun

Stephen Elliott-Buckley is a husband, father, professor, speaker, consultant, former suburban Vancouver high school English and Social Studies teacher who changed careers because the BC Liberal Party has been working hard to ruin public education. He has various English and Political Science degrees and has been writing political, social and economic editorials since November 2002. Stephen is in Twitter, Miro and iTunes, and the email thing, and at his website, dgiVista.org.

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