It is the eve of election day in the United States, Wonkistan! We’ve had a great discussion on voting and civics over the past few months, so we thought we would round up our favorite videos, articles, and links in preparation of the big day.
You’ll also see our latest episode, “Voting (Or Not!)” embedded above. Ivan talks with his friend Andrew, who is not voting this year, about his decision and the philosophies informing it. We contrast Andrew’s position to Hank Green’s “You. Must. Vote.” video, which in our opinion oversimplifies the many options available to voters. Andrew argues that not voting is an acceptable and even a responsible choice, and we want to give you a chance to hear his reasoning.
Now for our link party!
VIDEOS
- Hank Green: “You. Must. Vote.”
- Hussien (Peng1TV): “Voting, But You Don’t Have To”
- Catherine (catherinelucia11): “Third Parties are a Thing”
- Rohan (Robofillet): “Should you vote?”
- Wonkistan: “Voting (Or Not!)”
BLOGS
-Dealbreakers:
- The Economist endorses President Obama, citing Romney’s tax policy as a dealbreaker.
- Conor Freidersdorf’s “Why I Refuse to Vote for Obama” enumerates drone strikes in Libya, assassination of American citizens, and other choices of the Administration as dealbreakers.
- David Watkins makes a case against dealbreakers.
-Compulsory Voting: Rohan’s response to Hussien’s video
-Third parties:
- Matt Stoler for Salon.com argues that voting for a third party is “practice for crisis moments”
- An historical perspective from Bill Kauffman
- Catherine’s excellent video
- Jon Huntsman, who dropped out of the Republican presidential candidate race last year, spoke about a “third-party movement” when he endorsed Mitt Romney
-Peace Candidates: Buchanan from the American Conservative. One of the most notable peace candidates, George McGovern, passed away last month; shortly before his death, The Atlantic compared his radical anti-Vietnam and -Iraq War positions to modern historical consensus.
-Apathy: “In Praise of Apathy” by Christian Caryl
-Abstaining: “To Vote or Not To Vote? My Head Hurts” by Sana Saeed
-Personal perspectives:
- John Green’s “Open Letter to Undecided American Voters”
- Writers of The American Conservative on how they’re voting (ranging from Johnson to Obama). See also this breakdown of their vote.
TADA, a nice bunch of links and beautiful video explaining the complexity behind voting, and attempting to understand the different reasonings behind choosing to do so, or deliberately and purposely not. I urge you all to think about what you might do tomorrow.
