Don’t Vote in 2020

One of the most important rights we enjoy as Americans is the right not to vote.

I know this flies in the face of everything we are taught to believe as Americans. From a young age, we are taught that every citizen has an absolute moral obligation to vote. But if the electorate has an obligation to vote, what are the corresponding obligations of the political class? If we are obligated to choose one of the candidates that the two major political parties nominate each election, should the parties not have some obligation to offer a half-decent candidate?

Who should we vote for this election cycle? Since the last presidential election, which of the two parties has taken the business of government seriously? In this election cycle, which candidate has demonstrated an ability to lead, a coherent domestic agenda, and more than a casual relationship with the truth?

First, we have President Donald Trump — a man who lacks a working understanding of public policy, foreign affairs, or constitutional norms —  nevermind basic morality. As a conservative, I support plenty of the president’s policies, but I can’t overlook the fact that he has blown out the debt, failed to enact significant legislation, and eroded many of our political norms and institutions.

And how about the Democrats? According to the polls, there are currently four candidates with a realistic chance of winning delegates from the Iowa caucus: Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg. Let’s talk about them in order.

It’s time for Biden to retire from politics. He has contributed more than anyone to the politicization of the federal judiciary, besides Ted Kennedy, and has taken the wrong position on nearly every major foreign policy question in the last several decades. And that’s when he was in his prime! Forget a coherent governing agenda, Biden is barely capable of forming a coherent sentence.

Sanders is a votary of socialism: a political philosophy discredited by centuries of human experience. He has accepted support from the most unsavory corners of the political left, including the antisemite Linda Sarsour. Sanders’ three decades in Congress have yielded no significant legislation, and he is consistently ranked one of the least bipartisan members of the Senate. He has no executive experience except for eight years as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, an office he left almost 10 years before I was born. 

Warren is a serial and reflexive liar. She has lied about her ethnic background, getting fired for being pregnant and where she sent her children to school. Most recently, she claimed that Sanders, who has been a feminist his entire career, told her that a woman could not be elected president. Warren’s plans, which have endeared her to the progressive cognoscenti, are almost universally untenable, imprudent and unconstitutional. 

I’ll admit that I am legitimately impressed by how eloquent and quick-witted Buttigieg is. But let’s be serious. He has served as mayor of Indiana’s fourth largest city, South Bend, for eight years. That’s it. Buttigieg is clearly smart, but he is in no way qualified to govern the nation and superintend the executive branch.

I see no good options in this election. If no candidate more sensible and qualified emerges as one of our two options, what are we to do? Must we choose? I say no.

If the two political parties fail in their obligation to nominate reasonable candidates, I say we have no obligation to vote for either of them. Let us exorcize from serious discussion the notion that elections are binary choices. We always have the right not to choose, to deprive our government the legitimacy that flows from our votes.

Almost 140 million Americans voted in 2016. What would happen if less than half of them voted in 2020? One candidate would still win, but the dearth of voter turnout would be noticed. If enough Americans, seeing no presidential candidate worthy of the office, elect to exercise their right not to vote, they will make their displeasure known to the party establishments.

At the present moment, it looks like we will be presented with a choice between Trump and one of the four aforementioned Democrats in 2020. I choose neither; you should too.