I shall not vote: the ethical thing to do
Again, not that it matters to most readers or to the regime. But I thought that I should give a reasoned account on why I am not voting.
The simple reason is that the system is so screwed up that voting or not makes no difference. It is not that I am still registered in San Felipe though now forced to live in Caracas and too lazy to drive. Even if I were back in San Felipe I would not vote.
Thus the act of voting becomes an ethical choice. Why ethical? Because I need to respect the memory of those who sacrificed their lives so I could have the right to vote AND chose my leaders. But the regime has been effective in rendering that right meaningless and suddenly the ethic choice is also not to vote so that chavismo cannot take for itself a right that they never fought for. Not voting is the way to honor those who sacrificed so much in the 40ies and 50ies. Voting would betray them. Not even the situation of the vote of 1952 was as dire as it is today in Venezuela.
Thus my ethical choice is not to vote.
I make that choice independently of outside forces. Those who have preached abstention without offering a replacement strategy only deserve my contempt. Their refusal was motivated more about opposition internecine warfare than any true ethical choice. If the choice not to vote was ethical we would see them organizing massive protests all around the country these days. They are not. How come? Because they lack in moral rectitude, or at the very less do not express it. People sense that. I am not into relativity here, from Maria Corina Machado to Ramos Allup, they have failed. For her is a way to hide that even though she has the right ideas she is unable to organize a political movement like Leopoldo Lopez did. And for which he paid direly, abandoned by all except MCM. For Ramos Allup whose ambiguity, family connections and personal ambition led him to wreck the opposition electoral impulse more than once the result is that he has become the silent outcast. Calling for abstention is for him an admission that he has run out of ideas, that he cannot lead otherwise but through the void, perhaps destroying himself politically on purpose so he can ride into the sunset.
Voting for Maduro is of course out of the question. Even though I have come to understand than only total collapse, Venezuela becoming a failed state, could eventually throw the regime away my ethics block me from voting for Maduro to hasten the end because of the suffering that my vote would help in coming.
Finally, voting for Henri Falcon (or a minor yet chavista oriented candidate) is impossible on ethical grounds. Falcon has been a liar through and though during his campaign, breaking promises within days of uttering them, becoming perhaps the lone candidate in history to break his electoral promises big time before election day. Falcon has shown no ethics in his political carrer, just a cold calculated outward decency that drove him to the attempt he is really making, to become the anointed heir of the official opposition. Thus stealing all the work that was done by all, from Lopez to MCM. It will not happen and along the way he will destroy any chance the opposition has to create a common front. But he has no ethics to see that.
Voting or not voting, my ethics are challenged, but they are yet strong enough to give a moral compass and not vote on Sunday.
........................
I do not want this post to end so depressingly sad. Today we got a piece of good news, on what will really happen once this electoral farce is out of the way: Diosdado Cabello has finally been sanctioned by the US. Last but not least. I did a series of tweets on that and you can share in the good news below starting with that first tweet:
The simple reason is that the system is so screwed up that voting or not makes no difference. It is not that I am still registered in San Felipe though now forced to live in Caracas and too lazy to drive. Even if I were back in San Felipe I would not vote.
Thus the act of voting becomes an ethical choice. Why ethical? Because I need to respect the memory of those who sacrificed their lives so I could have the right to vote AND chose my leaders. But the regime has been effective in rendering that right meaningless and suddenly the ethic choice is also not to vote so that chavismo cannot take for itself a right that they never fought for. Not voting is the way to honor those who sacrificed so much in the 40ies and 50ies. Voting would betray them. Not even the situation of the vote of 1952 was as dire as it is today in Venezuela.
Thus my ethical choice is not to vote.
I make that choice independently of outside forces. Those who have preached abstention without offering a replacement strategy only deserve my contempt. Their refusal was motivated more about opposition internecine warfare than any true ethical choice. If the choice not to vote was ethical we would see them organizing massive protests all around the country these days. They are not. How come? Because they lack in moral rectitude, or at the very less do not express it. People sense that. I am not into relativity here, from Maria Corina Machado to Ramos Allup, they have failed. For her is a way to hide that even though she has the right ideas she is unable to organize a political movement like Leopoldo Lopez did. And for which he paid direly, abandoned by all except MCM. For Ramos Allup whose ambiguity, family connections and personal ambition led him to wreck the opposition electoral impulse more than once the result is that he has become the silent outcast. Calling for abstention is for him an admission that he has run out of ideas, that he cannot lead otherwise but through the void, perhaps destroying himself politically on purpose so he can ride into the sunset.
Voting for Maduro is of course out of the question. Even though I have come to understand than only total collapse, Venezuela becoming a failed state, could eventually throw the regime away my ethics block me from voting for Maduro to hasten the end because of the suffering that my vote would help in coming.
Finally, voting for Henri Falcon (or a minor yet chavista oriented candidate) is impossible on ethical grounds. Falcon has been a liar through and though during his campaign, breaking promises within days of uttering them, becoming perhaps the lone candidate in history to break his electoral promises big time before election day. Falcon has shown no ethics in his political carrer, just a cold calculated outward decency that drove him to the attempt he is really making, to become the anointed heir of the official opposition. Thus stealing all the work that was done by all, from Lopez to MCM. It will not happen and along the way he will destroy any chance the opposition has to create a common front. But he has no ethics to see that.
Voting or not voting, my ethics are challenged, but they are yet strong enough to give a moral compass and not vote on Sunday.
........................
I do not want this post to end so depressingly sad. Today we got a piece of good news, on what will really happen once this electoral farce is out of the way: Diosdado Cabello has finally been sanctioned by the US. Last but not least. I did a series of tweets on that and you can share in the good news below starting with that first tweet:
You need to read this carefully, the almost exquiste Treasury indictment, with excruciating details on why are sanctions imposed today on ALL Diosdado Cabello close family.— daniel duquenal (@danielduquenal) May 19, 2018
Why now since @dcabellor has been a main suspect for years? That is the question.https://t.co/Elz8C7sW9w
Post a Comment