Here’s a letter to the Baltimore Sun:
I object to the sentiment conveyed by the title of Andrew Yarrow’s op-ed “Vote now or forever hold your peace” (Sept. 8). There might be good reasons for voting; either prudence or ethics, or both, might suggest it to a citizen as a sound practice.
But because rights are not created by government – because people are indeed “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” – the non-voter retains his or her right to speak out in defense of those rights whenever they are assaulted by either private individuals or by government.
To insinuate that persons who don’t vote have no standing to speak out in defense of their rights and liberties is to insinuate that voting is a pre-condition of those rights and liberties. Such a belief is profoundly contrary to the political philosophy championed by the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
