Reed's Nonsense about Whether You Should Vote

A writer by the name of Fred Reed has written a piece entitled "The Con Game Called Democracy." The U.S., he claims "is not a democracy but a wonderfully crafted pretense." He adds that participating in elections is pointless and a sign of a weak mind. He asks how one can possibly believe that his vote will change anything of importance.

The con and the fool is Reed, a knuckledragger trying to make it as a gonzo writer posing with sunglasses and a cigar. Beware of persons presenting themselves with props.

In voting we have to be content as one voice added to the voices of millions. That doesn't mean our vote in not real, as Reed claims. Reed is talking like an ego-maniac, the kind of person who believes his vote should count for more than others. Moreover, his view has the cynicism of the fascist thug of the 1920s, who had as much disdain for democracy. Reed might consider himself anti-fascist, but he leaves that old question of what can replace democracy that he dislikes?

Reed writes that the United States is being run "by lobbyists, by criminals, and by forces that have no name." He ignores public opinion, which accounts for something, as President Franklin Roosevelt knew before the war, while holding back regarding foreign policy and some domestic racial matters. And Reed ignores reforms - which have counted for something in the history of politics. Rather than dismiss it all a bunk as Reed does, it is for those smarter than he to get people elected who will reform.

It is true that many people are influenced by political rhetoric that is geared more to persuasion than to logic and a thorough collection of facts. That's the way it goes in a democracy. Democracy challenges. But voters in general have a good amount of understanding about their own interests, narrow and broad, and democracies have proven more successful that rule by authoritarian leaders - Duce in Italian, Fuehrer in German. And what is true for democracies in general can be said for the United States.

So we can ignore Fred Reed and participate in our nation's politics.

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