Bringing Morals into the Voting Debate

            In my family, there is always a heated debate around election time because my dad, while being an eligible and well-informed citizen, refuses to vote.  Try as they might, my dad’s siblings, nephews, nieces and children cannot get him to go to the polls.  I had obviously been thinking about this predicament a lot while reading the Johnson article, so much so that when I finished it, I called him to get a straight answer.  I knew that Johnson’s arguments of rational abstention and rational ignorance did not apply to my dad.  He would gladly give up an hour of his day to vote if he someday changed his mind and he is not rationally ignorant nor indifferent.  After convincing him that I was not another family member attacking him and that I really just wanted to know, he explained his opinions clearly.  Basically, he does not vote because he “does not like the candidates our political system produces.” The founder of the Center for Morality in Public Life, Andrew Haines, seems to express similar opinions to my dad.   

“The act of voting, in this case, isn’t something we can assess under a utility-driven approach to social welfare (e.g., sorting out the lesser of two political evils). Instead, voting is a reflection of right reason in action—and because of this, it can only engage positively (i.e., we can only cast an unspoiled ballot) when the intellect is given enough fodder to make an informed judgment.”

After our discussion in class today, I feel I can possibly see his point of view.  Because the U.S. is a two party system, the candidates tend to race toward the median voter, as we talked about in class.  This makes them very similar and moderate, leaving someone like my dad, who holds more extreme views, alienated without an ideal choice.  He then applies Haine’s argument above in that instead of choosing a lesser of two evils, he abstains altogether.  This point of view is more philosophical than economical because his actions are not consistent with his best interests.  He could save a lot of time (by not having to always argue) and avoid a lot of social pressure by just voting.  Rather, his actions are consistent with his morals so he refuses to participate in anything he feels will jeopardize this.  Life would be much easier if there was a candidate he felt was "worthy" of his vote.  However, if a candidate were to move far enough down the political spectrum to persuade my dad to vote, they would probably lose all the moderate and ample median voters they set out to get.