Dear citizens of democratic countries,
You, as an American, as an European have the opportunity that most of the people in the world don’t have, the opportunity to take part in deciding how your country is ruled by voting in fair elections.
According to the Democracy Index created by the UK based Intelligence Unit, only 9% of the world’s population lives in a democracy and 40% in a «flawed» democracy. We, as part of these privileged half of the world, have the highly valuable opportunity to vote and yet a large part of us seem to fail to understand or to realize how important and precious this right is.
In the United States elections two weeks ago, barely half of the US citizens eligible for vote decided to exercise this right. In France, this weekend, only 4 millions people showed up to elect the candidate that will represent the right-wing political parties in the 2017 presidential elections. In the United Kingdom in 2010, one out of three citizen did not vote for the general elections.
Those numbers should not be that low. Vote, contribute to the way your country is ruled, use the power (even that small part of power) that democracy, the political system where the people decide, gives you.
Because first of all, one century ago, people were fighting to gain that right of being allowed to express their opinion and above that, make their opinion matter. In too many country, people are still hoping to obtain that right one day. Therefore, because we are fortunate enough to not know what it is like to have to fight for it, it is our duty to value that right enough and consequently, to use it. Make your voice and opinion matter.
Furthermore, more people voting minimizes the chances of extreme right-wing parties to come to power. If Trump, a controversial candidate considered by many people in the US and by even more in Europe as too right-wing, is now president-elect of the United States it is mainly because of the number of people who voted for the Democrats plummeted by 10% between 2008 and 2016 while the amount of Republicans voters stayed roughly the same. Trump did not win this election because more people voted for him but because too many people stopped voting. People who do not vote are usually the moderate voters who would vote for traditional, mild candidates or parties and their input could prevent candidates such as Donald Trump or, as it might soon happen in France, Marine Le Pen to be elected.
Finally, voting gives, in my opinion, the right to complain and to ask for change in the political and social system. People who don’t vote by laziness or by disinterest do not have the right to complain about the results of the election for they did not even try to influence that result with the means the society gives them.
However, the political system and all the candidates it proposes may seem insufficient and unacceptable for some people who then, by lack of other choice, will not vote. Even in that case, there is no excuse for ignoring the principle of democracy and this flaw of the society can not be a justification for a passive behavior. Alternatives such as the NOTA (None Of The Above) movement in the UK exist and there are always other ways to express your political opinion and in short to be part of a democratic country.
In conclusion, democracy and the right to vote is a right we have and that we should use by voting because we can not forget we are favored to posses this valuable right, because it is a barrier to the rise of extremism and racism and because, in a more large way, we, as the people (the «demos» in ancient Greek), should always try to be part, by voting or by other means, of the political decisions of our country as long as we have the opportunity to do so.
Thomas.
