A Cafe Hayek reader is (as many are) deeply disturbed by my refusal to vote in political elections. He wrote, in a very cordial and gracious manner, to ask why I do not vote. Here’s the reply that I sent to him by e-mail (very lightly edited):
I do not vote because I despise politics. I’ve never met a politician, or even heard of one, who I regard to be fit to rule my life or the lives of any other people. So I refuse to cast a ballot for any such person seeking power that I believe that no one should possess.
I am active in the world of ideas – teaching economics and sharing my opinion. That’s an activity that I choose, because I am a free man, to do. I choose not to participate in electoral politics because I believe that it is a fraudulent, corrupt, and corrupting affair that attracts as candidates – with exceptions too few to matter – no one whom I could in good conscience help to gain the power that he or she seeks.
