Friends on Facebook: if you do one thing for me in your entire life, please make it reading this post. Id like to make a serious appeal concerning tomorrows election, and your vote. Id like you to think seriously about what I have to say. The wonderful thing about our suffrage is that we get to decide what we do with our vote, and there are no rules. If you decide, arbitrarily, only to give your vote to a party that represents you (and if you are a truly thinking person, no party completely represents you), and not to give your vote for any other reason whatsoever (be it strategic voting purposes or something else), because you feel that this is how a vote should be used, then you are in a way disenfranchising yourself. Some believe it is wrong to use a vote simply to support a friend. Some believe it is wrong to use a vote to achieve financial gain. But these are all legitimate - actually quite powerful - uses of a vote, and they do empower us, and theyre part of what makes democracy work; part of what gets people represented in our society. Its what makes your vote so powerful; if your vote were only to support the vague beliefs of a status-quo party bound to be in parliament already, then it loses a lot of power; it loses its ability to make a change. Im not asking you to give your vote to the Civilian Party to support me. God no. Though if you did, that would be a totally legitimate use of your vote. It is a vote that accurately reflects your beliefs, gives you a say, and does what you want it do. But rather, I am asking you to vote for the Civilian Party not for me, not even for this party, but to support a long and rich tradition of satirical parties in New Zealand and around the world. These parties bring great joy, they are always remembered fondly, and they are - despite what some joyless and destructive people may say - an extremely important part of our democratic process. Ive worked hard to bring the Civilian Party to life - in some cases Ive given blood, sweat and tears - and it has come out a lot less ambitiously, in some places less good, than I would have liked. This party may not be a large entry in the history of satirical parties in our nations history, but nonetheless it is an entry, and I want to be able to say, at the end of it, that whatever little else I did, that I helped pave the way for parties like mine to continue existing in the future, that I garnered enough votes to say Well, you know what? That was a thing. Every single vote for the Civilian Party speaks volumes, because its a vote for something that literally no one else in our political system is voting for. We are the only party like us. We are the only party, that when you vote for us, it says I care about satire in our electoral system and I think its an important and valuable part of it. If you dont believe that, I feel sorry for you, but if you do - in any way - believe in that, then you would be expressing it through your vote for us, and I am asking you to. Sometimes these movements dont do well. Sometimes they fall short. In 1984, the McGillicuddy Serious party received 178 votes. But they went on, in subsequent elections, to receive 0.68% of the popular vote, because people kept voting for them, they kept supporting them, and they prospered. This isnt just a joke to me. Its important, and I feel strongly, and passionately about it. I ask you to support that spirit in me, and that spirit in the party, and that spirit in future movements like these, so say we all, amen. Ill leave you alone now.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 01:44:10 +0000
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