Dear America, If Voting Made Any Real Difference, They Wouldn’t Let Us Do It

Op-Ed by Matt Agorist

It’s election time again and that means that roughly 40 percent of eligible voters will rush to the polls to vote for the lesser of two evils who they think will implement their political will for the benefit of the citizenry. Politicians will be waving signs on street corners as Americans line up in elementary schools across the country to cast their vote—for freedom, or something like that.

So, get out there and cast your ballot for your favorite politician, or don’t.

Even if you vote, or not, and your party wins, or not, the police state will continue. Constantly voting for the lesser of two evils has manifested into an inevitable cycle in which the government gets more powerful and the people get poorer. But don’t take my word for it, just look at the current state of America.

50 percent of all American workers make less than $30,533 a year. In the meantime, however, the politically connected elite made up of the 0.1% have increased their wealth by more than $1 trillion in the past year. One trillion also happens to be the same amount of money that the US taxpayer has had placed on their backs in the form of government debt in the last year, too. Coincidence? Probably not.

“But if the republicans keep the house we will make America great,” right? Or, “if the dems take the house, we can finally have nice things,” right? Wrong. The reality of the situation is that no matter who gets elected, these politicians have already made a Faustian bargain to keep the police and warfare state in power.

In today’s political climate, it is no longer a question of which party is in power, or which party will usher in totalitarianism. Instead, we have reached a point of simply waiting for the hammer to finally fall.

Donald Trump ran on a platform to make government smaller, get America out of these endless wars, cease the chaotic and out of control spending, and rein in the overreaching executive. Instead, he’s continued wars, increased spending, and followed in his predecessor’s footsteps in using his position of president like a dictatorship with executive order after executive order—most recently threatening to alter the very Constitution with one.

We’re not only speeding toward the edge of a perilous cliff, but arguing over who should steer the wheel — leaving no one competent enough available to man the brakes.

Any politician who attempts to apply the proverbial brakes is laughed out of Congress, pushed to the fringes, and never sees the light of day in the mainstream media. Case in point, Justin Amash and Tulsi Gabbard.

As Constitution attorney John Whitehead so eloquently noted,

We’re being subjected to more government surveillance, more police abuse, more SWAT team raids, more roadside strip searches, more censorship, more prison time, more egregious laws, more endless wars, more invasive technology, more militarization, more injustice, more corruption, more cronyism, more graft, more lies, and more of everything that has turned the American dream into the American nightmare.

What we’re not getting more of: elected officials who actually represent us.

The American people are being guilted, bullied, pressured, cajoled, intimidated, terrorized and browbeaten into voting. We’re constantly told to vote because it’s your so-called civic duty, because you have no right to complain about the government unless you vote, because every vote counts, because we must present a unified front, because the future of the nation depends on it, because God compels us to do so, because by not voting you are in fact voting, because the “other” candidate must be defeated at all costs, or because the future of the Supreme Court rests in the balance.

Nothing in the Constitution requires that you vote.

You are under no moral obligation to vote for the lesser of two evils. Indeed, voting for a lesser evil is still voting for evil.

The ruling elite have no problem flaunting this in front of our faces either. In fact, one Congressman even spoke out in a book, bragging about how voting doesn’t matter and that the US government views the citizens as “sheep.”

In 2016, the Internet exploded when the bookCongressman Xwas published. In it, the supposed current or former congressman explained that voting is what keeps assholes like him in power.

“My main job is to keep my job, to get reelected,” Congressman X asserts in the book. “It takes precedence over everything.”

In regard to how the political class views the citizens, Congressman X did not hold back.

“Voters are incredibly ignorant and know little about our form of government and how it works,” he says. “It’s far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification.”

“Voters claim they want substance and detailed position papers, but what they really crave are cutesy cat videos, celebrity gossip, top 10 lists, reality TV shows, tabloid tripe, and the next f**king Twitter message,” he rants.

In case you haven’t noticed yet, voting changes nothing in regard to the status quo. If it did have any chance of changing anything significant, it would be illegal.

What really changes things is disobedience to tyrants and pushing back against government corruption by refusing to be silenced. Seeking a lesser ignorance changes things—not repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

So, how do we do it? How do we shift the scales to favor freedom and liberty instead of the police state and tyranny? Well, it’s not easy, but it is possible—and necessary.

As Whitehead notes:

We get organized. We get educated. We get active.

If you feel led to vote, fine, but if all you do is vote, “we the people” are going to lose.

If you abstain from voting and still do nothing, “we the people” are going to lose.

If you give your proxy to some third-party individual or group to fix what’s wrong with the country and that’s all you do, then “we the people” are going to lose.

If, however, you’re prepared to shake off the doldrums, wipe the sleep out of your eyes, turn off the television, tune out the talking heads, untether yourself from whatever piece of technology you’re affixed to, wean yourself off the teat of the nanny state, and start flexing those unused civic muscles, then there might be hope for us all.

For starters, get back to basics. Get to know your neighbors, your community, and your local officials. This is the first line of defense when it comes to securing your base: fortifying your immediate lines.

Second, understand your rights. Know how your local government is structured. Who serves on your city council and school boards? Who runs your local jail: has it been coopted by private contractors? What recourse does the community have to voice concerns about local problems or disagree with decisions by government officials?

Third, know the people you’re entrusting with your local government. Are your police chiefs being promoted from within your community? Are your locally elected officials accessible and, equally important, are they open to what you have to say? Who runs your local media? Does your newspaper report on local events? Who are your judges? Are their judgments fair and impartial? How are prisoners being treated in your local jails?

Finally, don’t get so trusting and comfortable that you stop doing the hard work of holding your government accountable.

Now, instead of sitting idly by and complaining about those in power, let’s fix this. You can start by sharing this article. It’s not that people want this leviathan to continue, it’s that information like this is not readily available to them and they don’t know there are other options.

What’s more, as we proved last month, this is on purpose and the establishment is worried about the message of peace and liberty spreading.

Once you wake someone up to the reality of the status quo, they will never go back to sleep again. The individuals will continue to enlighten and awaken their fellow humans with the message of peace and liberty until these individuals become the sleeping giant that is the idea whose time has come. And as Ron Paul famously said, “no army can stop an idea whose time has come.”

Be the change you want to see in this world. Get off your ass. Spread peace. And take the advice of Dylan Thomas when he says to “rage, rage against the dying of the light.”