Silence is Consent

At my protest today, when I asked a gentleman if he was registered to vote in Oregon, he said that he doesn't want to give legitimacy to an illegitimate system.

I told him that they don't care if he gives them legitimacy or not; his not voting does not affect their legitimacy. "In fact, the Powers That Be love it when you don't vote.”

          He also thought that they also fixed and faked elections, but I pointed out that some measures had, in fact, been voted against their wishes. Sure, they could do some fraud around the edges, but it isn't that easy to completely fake election results.
          He said that he'd actually think some more about the idea. This doesn't happen often; one has to cherish such moments.
          I failed to point out that he couldn't have it both ways: If they could easily fake the results that they want, then his voting could have no effect one way or another on either their legitimacy or the results of the vote. They could fake his vote.

But in fact, the legitimacy of a government or an election does not depend on the number of the people who vote. Not voting is a true protest only in countries where one is required to vote, and only totalitarians demand it—and then rig the election if necessary to get 99% approval. They aren't after consent of the governed, so much as the bending of every knee out of fear.
          In a democratic republic, not voting is silence, which is consent to whatever those who are not silent decide. The Powers that Be are quite happy with low turnout, because they know that the Pharisees who support them will always vote, and the lower the turnout, the more their people and policies will pass.
          They do everything they can to suppress turnout, including the reverse psychology of telling everyone that it is their sacred duty to vote. Nothing puts off a freedom lover like being told by Pharisees that something is one's sacred duty. But notice that these admonitions start every election after registration is closed for that election. And while felons can vote in Oregon, the Powers do their best to keep felons from knowing it.

          It doesn't matter how many other ways you protest the policies of the rulers, if you are silent in the only opinion polls that count. That applies not only to voting in elections, but to city and county meetings and bills in the legislature as well. When they tell you that a specific issue is to be decided, if you don't tell them what you think of it, you consent to whatever they decide, unless and until you take them to court. Following such things is not as easy as voting; that's what our founding fathers meant when they said that constant vigilance is the price of liberty. Voting is the least you can do.