Ethics Of Voting

Most people believe that voting is the most effective means of political expression. After all, voting is a right that not all people of the world have. While there is merit to this belief, there is much more to political engagement than the act of voting.

There are numerous examples in America of the glorification of the vote. Take, for example, the response to NFL quarterback Colin Kaeernick’s actions. Kaepernick used his prominent position in society to advocate his beliefs. He chose to kneel on the sidelines during the National Anthem to protest police violence against people of color. While this was a controversial action that offended many people, Kaepernick’s actions heightened the conversation and attention to this serious issue. When

The answer is simple – yes. The more complicated answer is that it is not the act of voting that matters but the reasons and the implications of our voting that matters. Jason Brennan, author of “The Ethics of Voting,” believes that many people vote with good intentions, yet they do not know what they are doing. Thus, most people do more harm than good at the polls. He suggests that voting has many implications in society: “[b]ad choices at the polls can destroy economic opportunities, produce crises that lower everyone’s standards of living, lead to unjust and unnecessary wars, help reinforce poverty, produce overly punitive criminal legislation, and worse.” He also relates voting to choosing an item on a menu. If I make a poor selection on the menu, only I have to pay for that mistake. However, if I make a mistake in an election, everyone suffers. Brennan believes that American citizens have no “moral obligation” to vote because voting is just one of the many ways citizens can promote the common good and exercise civic virtue. However, “if citizens do decide to vote, they have very strict moral obligations regarding how they vote.” Then, voting is something that requires much research and time. We ought to know who the candidates are we are voting for, looking at more than just what they say they will do once they hold office. This means we ought to look at their life and see whether they live like they speak

Because only a minority of people can run for office or donate significant sums of money to campaigns, we will focus particularly on political engagement as it relates to local engagement. Naturally, we are more aware of the problems in our own community than problems in other communities. Likewise, the federal government can only do so much to alleviate the hunger, poverty, and social issues in our local communities. Local engagement, then, through being part of civil society, can be the most effective form of political engagement. This involves seeing and meeting the needs in our communities. Examples of this may be partnering with the local food bank to alleviate hunger in our community or coaching a little league team to help young boys and girls learn the importance of hard work and