There are people who say that you voted, and now you should shut up and accept the results.
There are people who say that you didn’t vote and therefore have no right to complain.
Do whatever you want, you can’t win anyway.
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I like George Carlin’s take: “If you vote, you have no right to complain.”
Personally, although “If you don’t vote, you’ve got no right to complain” is stupid, I’ve always thought there was a bit of truth in the reverse: If you won’t complain, you’ve got no right to vote.
I don’t mean legally speaking of course, that would be silly. But if you can’t find something to complain about, tif you’re not willing to vocalize these problems, especially when your own preferred candidate is in power, you’re obviously not engaged enough that your opinion is worth much, and you’re more likely to be a blind, unquestioning party hack, “I’m voting this guy in because he’s my side, don’t care what he actually believes or does” or allow horrible policies to tiptoe past you while you sleepwalk through democracy.
I just don’t understand the logic of saying “it doesn’t matter either way”, it just seems like a backhanded attempt to get fewer people to vote or even care about the democratic process. The argument that the democratic process would be better if more people voted is a lot more reasonable, if unprovable. Even the argument that “both parties are the same” is kind of weak; if McCain/Palin were elected in 2008 we probably wouldn’t have the Affordable Care Act, which (for all its flaws) is still a move in the right direction. Don’t let the perfect be an enemy of the good.
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