If you are not registered to vote, and exercising the right to vote on election day you are missing out on your most direct chance at influencing the politicians.
Back In “Eastie”
Back when I was working in “Eastie” the local politician who represented that ward on the city council had a James Micheal Curly poster on the wall in back of his desk. Curly had been a famous Massachusetts Pol of the “vote early an often” stripe, famous for distruting aid to needy voters.
Al liked me, despite my being outside of his currupting reach, and on occasion he would invite me to lunch and regale me with stories of the old days and James Michael Curly. One of the things Al had learned from Curly was the value of people in your district knowing you, knowing where they could find you, and knowing that you would work for them.
The place we ate was the old S&S deli in Inlet Square. Three or four times a week he would hold court there among a flock of other local pols, ward heelers, citizens and even the odd tourist who wandered out of the “better” areas of town.
One lunch time he berated me for disparagiong the value of a single vote. He sternly looked at me, and said.” Louis, don’t ever underestimate the value of a vote. If they weren’t important would so many continually be trying to buy them, influence them and win elections with them?”
He continued,” I’d never spend a dime on purchasing votes. I get mine the old fashioned way. I know every mother and father in my ward, where their kids are going to school and what the dogs name is. I know how hard up they are, and I know if and how I may be able to help them out by putting a good word in for them. Their vote for me is personal, not because some slick Willie in Boston paid thousands to plump the ballot on election day.”
Tammany Tigers
In fact this old time school of politics reminded me of where I grew up in New York City. It’s sentiment was hugely remindful of New York City’s Tammany Hall. Patronage politics writ large. The pols of this ilk were termed Tammany Tigers. They eventually were defeated by reform movements that aimed to get the patronage out of government. No longer was your vote owed to a patronage network. We now had clean politics. Al laughed at this. Your vote was now purchased by a public relations agency presenting ads that influenced your attitude about issues, ballot questions and personalities.
The tradeoff was that you now didn’t have a relationship with anyone. Your representative was some far off person you never saw. If they expressed interest in you and your family it was in the abstract; they didn’t know you from thousands of others he or she represented. There was no sentimental attachment involved at all. But they supposedly cared deeply for their constituents; in the little time they spent in the district.
Vote
So you might think that I’d have the opinion that the value of the vote has been diminished. That’s not the case. If the ballot had diminished in value how could you account for surprise outcomes. I would not like to return to the ward boss, Tammany style of politics. Reform movements were correct that was just a way to buy votes by favoritism and favors. But the newer way of influencing the ballot through corporate campaign contributions to pacts is just another form of patronage. Just from the top rather than from the bottom.
But Al was right. If the individual vote was not important why would there be so much cost and effort placed on procuring it? There is a sort of perpetual tension going on here.
Evaluate the political folderol, don’t pay attention to the smear tactics, go to events and meet candidates. Be cagy about who you’ll support – the unaligned voter is many times the most sought out. and remember that as Al said, if your vote wasn’t important why would they try so hard to get it?
Postscript – The little gem of a book “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall” by William L. Riordon is availble from a umber of sources as a PDF file. My worn and rough edges paperback edition sits right above me. It is one of my most perused titles on political issues. Riordan wrote the book from his series of newspaper interviews with George Washington Plunkitt a Tammany Tiger. First published in 1905, parts of it still read as fresh news. Get a copy and increase your political education.
More on my up and down relationships with Al some other time!
Discover more from Louis N. Carreras, Woodcarver
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I wrote a response to this prompt and deleted it. I wrote about how the mess between Bush and Gore was a scary close election with the final results being (IMO) questionable. From that, I decided to vote. I had reasons for NOT voting that went back to John Anderson’s campaign in 1980 on which I worked very hard only to see election results called LONG before all the votes had been counted. I do not like the electoral college, but…
So, the Bush/Gore fiasco and CA making it easier to vote brought me back to the ballot. My feeling now is that my vote counts most on the local level which corresponds exactly with where I live.
In our current situation two things hit me: 1) HWSNBN was elected by the people. 2) 1/3 of people who could have voted didn’t. That second point disgusts me every time I think of it.
Sorry about the late response. But a performance of Mendelsohn’s Elijah interposed.
All your points are great. and you reminded me of Anderson Campaign that I participated in and for whom I voted.
It’s your last point that particularly sticks wwith me. The 1/3rd. And that is particulariy where the Elijah performance kicks in. somewhere in the first part I lost my way and started considering that some percentage of a holes gets a society in trouble. But when the bottom falls out it’s not just them that suffer the consequences. It rains down on everyone. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. At the point I was ruminating on this I was thinking on all the innocents who get crushed, and the holes who may slip off to a safe bolt hole to enjoy their ill goitten gains.
That is even more disgusting.
I still believe in the vote though, maybe now all the independents, and Hispanics and others who joined the MAGAT choir will realize that HWSNBN was not their best buddy reborn.
Many years ago folks in my neighborhood in NYS would not even consider not voting. Weather didn’t matter. But today with easy options like early and mail in, seems like folks are either lazy or disinterested.