People who don't vote, shouldn't

I'm sick to death of get-out-the-vote movements, and other grassroots attempts to get people who wouldn't otherwise vote to vote. These campaigns seem to be predicated on the notion that there are hordes of engaged, informed people out there who have decided not to vote as a sort of protest against the system, or because they're too lazy. That's simply not the case. The people who don't vote are the people who are not politically engaged or informed. Getting more of these people to vote does not strengthen democracy; indeed it has the opposite effect.

The basic assumption of democracy is that people will vote, at the very least, in their own best interests. When someone ignorant of the political landscape votes they're just voting for whoever the TV tells them to. This means that, more often than not, they're going to elect someone who will work against their best interests (since crooked politicians raise the most money). In essence when a politically ignorant person votes they're not strengthening our democracy, they're literally weakening it. They're giving power to the people who run their political campaigns like ad campaigns, rather than to the people who would represent their interests. They incentivize future politicians to run their campaigns like ad campaigns, weakening the next crop of candidates.

There are a number of political parties and politicians (coughStephenHarpercough) who have open contempt for democracy and it's principles. These people can do a lot of damage to our system of government. This damage, however, pales in comparison to the damage wrought by "get-out-the-vote" types who flood the electorate with the kind of people who vote for these politicians.

If someone doesn't want to vote, let them abstain. They have nothing to contribute to the political discourse, and they were able to recognize this themselves. Democracy presupposes an informed electorate. That's why we don't call our system of government "Mob Rule". Contaminating this electorate with the people who are so politically disengaged that they weren't even going to vote damages the very core of our democracy.

If you really want to have a positive influence on the next elections, try a "get-out-the-detailed-analysis-of-voting-records" campaign. The problem with that is it's very hard to tie it in to making sure that person will vote for "your guy", so nobody cares. If it has no value as propaganda, then it's not worth the effort. The health of democracy, as always, takes a backseat to the short term goal of getting the identical oligarch whose team you are on elected.

"Oh but people don't want to read a detailed analysis of voting records." Well, guess what? Those people shouldn't vote. If they find that sort of thing boring or they're not smart enough to comprehend it then they're exactly the sort of people who shouldn't be voting. If you're not equipped (or not willing) to inform yourself, then you're not equipped to vote. Period. I don't care if they like your guy's hair.

As it stands our political process is being hampered by a dearth of information, not an overabundance. If anything less people should be voting than are now because they're simply not informed enough. The last thing we need, the very last, is more uninformed voters further diluting the waters of democracy.

Every get-out-the-vote vote cancels out the vote of someone who took the time to pay attention and inform themselves.