The Power of a Vote

Every election, people come out and admonish "if you don't vote, you have no power" or "a vote is the only voice you have" or other such nonsense.

I must disagree.

If anything, the last presidential election showed that individual votes don't count. IIRC, Gore actually won the popular vote. But that's only an ancillary point. The point is that a vote is only *one* voice, and it is one that is easily drowned out.

Perhaps my best example of how votes are not the only power is womens' sufferage. Women had *no* vote. If their only voice had been their vote, they *still* wouldn't have a vote. Women didn't change the laws by voting to change them. They changed the laws by convincing people that it was the right thing to do. They changed the laws by changing public opinion. They talked. They marched. They protested. They used the legal system. They used their influence (Lysistrata anyone?).

Laws aren't changed because of how we, as citizens, vote. They are changed by how our [supposed] representatives vote, how the lobbiests influence, how the lower courts interpret, and how the high courts rule. One eloquent and convincing attorney standing before the United States Supreme Court has more power in his single voice than the roar of 200 million voters. We do not vote for that attorney. We do not vote for those justices.

If you think a vote is the strongest voice you have, then consider this. One man in California changed nothing with his vote. But that same man struck at an American tradition and caused the entire nation to rise up in support and condemnation; caused the entirety of Congress and the media, and even the President himself to react with vehemence and passion. How? He stepped into the 9th Circuit Court and said "I believe this is wrong."

A ballot from the hand of Martin Luther King Jr. didn't even qualify as a whisper. But 40 years after his asassination, 4 common words, spoken with clarity, conviction, and hope, still drive the role of American politics and equality. 4 words: "I have a dream."

One woman without the right to vote swept through the south and through her power and conviction, caused the very Constitution, the Supreme Law of the Land, to be changed. The 18th Amendment was born not from Carrie Nation's vote, but from her voice.

It wasn't a vote which brought down Richard Nixon.
It wasn't a vote which brought down "Seperate but Equal."
It wasn't a vote which brought down the Communications Decency Act.
It wasn't a vote which brought unions into their own.

It wasn't a vote which felled the Twin Towers.
It wasn't a vote which filled the gulags.
It wasn't a vote which made "the disappeared"
It wasn't a vote which slaughtered 6 million Jews.

It wasn't a vote....

Is your vote a voice? Yes. And a hundred million voices in harmony may speak volumes and change nations. But so may the voices of ten. Or the voice of one...if that voice is clear, strong, true, and passionate.

Don't whisper your wishes into the ballot box and hope they reach the ear of those above. Use every voice you have to lead, educate, and exemplify.

One clear voice, strong and passionate, will rise above one hundred million whispers and drown them out. If that one voice preaches evil, evil will come. If that one voice preaches Truth, Truth will come.