This election year, both major party presidential candidates are so flawed and unappealing that many of us will be looking seriously at the Libertarian and Green candidates, begging the question, is there such a thing as a wasted vote? I think not, for to me a vote is much like a prayer. Is any prayer wasted?
Yes, there are obvious differences. While prayers are addressed to a higher power in the spiritual realm, votes are cast in the physical world to affect a tangible change therein. Prayer can happen anytime, anywhere, in a variety of forms, while voting has strict rules and procedures to control the process. The similarities, however, are striking. While voting and praying may take place in a public space, we think of them as ideally expressing a pure and private intention. Both also carry a high degree of uncertainty in their efficacy and ultimate outcome. Votes may or may not be counted, and there is always a losing side. Similarly, it is self-evident that not all prayers are answered.
I have little confidence that either the Democratic or Republican candidate will act as I wish on the issues I care most about, which are climate change, Mideast foreign policy, and the war of the sexes. Trump says he would withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. Clinton says she will support it, yet the agreement is essentially useless and worthless, since the targets for CO2 emissions reductions are voluntary. I haven’t heard a word of support from her for the current historic gathering of the Indian tribes in North Dakota to protect Treaty Lands and the waters of the Missouri River from the Dakota Access Pipeline.Neither Clinton nor Trump are talking about a need to review or revise the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force that enabled both Bush and Obama to expand military action beyond Afghanistan and Iraq in the name of national interests and national security. As the Afghan and Iraqi wars continue, as well as civil wars in Libya, Syria, and Yemen, there is no end in sight to American involvement, spending, and casualties, yet also no promise of greater security here at home to show for it.
Likewise, neither questions the virtually unconditional U.S. support of Israel, despite that nation’s decades-long illegal occupation of the West Bank and Golan Heights, and its cruel and oppressive policies and actions toward the occupied Palestinians, and the citizens of the Gaza Strip. The most recent 10-year military aid package to Israel is the largest ever pledged to another country, at $3.8 billion per year. With the global refugee population at its highest number since the end of World War 2, the plight of any one group of refugees, like the Palestinians, may be overshadowed. Americans should remember the 750,000 Palestinians displaced by the creation of Israel in 1948-49, and the additional 323,000 who fled the 1967 war, and their descendants, who still yearn to return. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains the historical and geographical heart of much of the violence, militarization, and political polarization in that region.
The oldest, deepest, and darkest conflict afflicting humanity is the war between men and women. Mr. Trump’s sexism and misogyny may have already cost him the election, but Mrs. Clinton’s credibility on the issue is always questioned because of her husband’s past behavior.
I like the Green Party platform, which reflects my views on these issues. I like their slogan, “for the greater good, not the lesser evil.” I’d like to see a woman be President, and Jill Stein meets that qualification. The Green Party has to get votes just to maintain their hard-fought ballot access. So if I vote Green, is my vote wasted?
As for the fears of a rigged election, we need look no further than Brown County, Texas. In just over a decade, our county Elections Dept., overseen by the County Commissioners Court, has chosen to go from paper ballots, with mechanical tabulation, to paper ballots with digital tabulation, to digital (paperless) ballots, with digital tabulation, all at great cost, in the name of greater speed and efficiency. Simply put, there is no “paper trail” to follow anymore, if election fraud is suspected or claimed. Only a digital sleuth can tell us if our election was hacked in this county. Who might that be? Do you trust this system?
Our presidential campaigns have become too long, and too costly, and reveal a self-centered and self- indulgent national character that detracts from our real power, as a nation, to do good in this troubled world. On Nov. 9, we will still be faced with the same challenges and opportunities, as citizens, to make the incremental changes and adjustments that would create the nation and world we want to see. Whether we vote, pray, do both, or neither, it is our own responsibility, not just our elected officials’, to be informed and active citizens.
Daniel Graham, Brownwood
