The Indefensibility of Coercive Voting
I recently posted the following comment on the MissionMission blog:
What I am saying is that voting, if it can ever be justifiable, is only valid if its goal is to delegitimize the state, but voting is something that inherently legitimizes the state. Government insists they rule by the consent of the governed, but I do not remember a government official ever asking me(or my neighbors) if I would agree to the outcome of a vote regardless of my vote. The only way to then enforce such votes are through acts of aggression. The natural order of government is to kill those who disagree because an individual’s non-violent noncompliance delegitimizes the state. That is not to say you see government going around murdering tax evaders everyday, but that is simply because the alternative of not paying taxes is much, much worse than forking over a percentage of one’s income. I voluntarily give my money to a mugger, but that is only because the alternative is getting stabbed, shot, or beaten. Of course, the government has an incentive to be as polite as possible in coercing its citizenry because they need the taxpayer’s cooperation more than they need headaches caused by a disobedient individual. But if simply being stubborn led to the state leaving the offender alone then no one would listen to the state’s dictates in the first place. Government must eventually resort to murder.
I’m all for a vote initiated by consenting parties, but then if everyone consented to the outcome of the voting that wouldn’t really be government then, would it? So maybe we ought to have a pre-vote where we ask everyone involved if they would agree to the outcome of a vote before putting the original issue to a vote. I am saying this sarcastically, of course. The only logical conclusion that I can see is a society based on voluntary interactions between individuals.
In all things I would prefer to be non-violent. By this principle I would never want to vote on something that would lead to acts of aggression against peaceful non-compliers either directly or by proxy(police).
