Written on December 8th, 2011
Edited in April 2014
Any
candidate for public office whose campaign does not emphasize the
abolition of the secret-ballot voting system - whether Democrat,
Republican, or independent - favors a secret, private government; one
which rests on power which is maintained through aggressive, violent
force and the threat thereof, rather than on consent, voluntary
association, and duly-delegated decision-making authority.
Secret
ballots make for secret government; government which is - by force
and power disguised as "law" - unaccountable and
irresponsible to the people of which it claims exclusive dominion.
Irresponsible,
exclusive dominion is indistinguishable from the right of private
property; these politicians literally own us. Why should we elect a
politician who does not make it an issue that he will only use his
violence-defended power but once, in order to release us from his
ownership?
Show
me the document that proves you ever authorized one of your elected
representatives to make decisions on your behalf. You can't do it
because the secret-ballot system makes this impossible and "illegal".
"All
votes shall be by secret ballot." - Constitution of the State of
Wisconsin, Article III, Section 3.
Read
"No Treason" by Lysander Spooner.
[The remainder of this entry is a response to someone's comment that "The secret ballot protects my right and yours to vote for whom we choose without intimidation or force. Abolishing the secret ballot would be abolishing the most crucial element of a democratic republic. It's an idiotic idea."]:
It’s
fine when people agree to use the secret ballot, like when they
freely join labor unions, and vote on issues in them. But we’re
talking about the government here. Take the State of Wisconsin for
example.
The
land of Wisconsin was conquered (stolen) and secured through force.
Nobody ever unanimously consented to be governed and protected by the
Wisconsin government – especially the people who had the right to
the land – and now people have no choice as to who protects them.
Governments
have a monopoly on the provision of security, and a “monopoly of
legitimate violence” (which Obama has supported). We are forced to
pay them taxes, which gives them the power (but not the authority, by
which I mean authorization) to defend us against real enemies, as
well as any enemies they feel it necessary to invent.
But
even if any group of people had ever unanimously consented to be
controlled by a government which operates under the secret ballot,
those people’s consent would not be binding upon we individuals
today. We are absolutely sovereign to control our own destinies, and
our ancestors cannot compel us into supporting a system which we wish
to have no part in.
Being
that we must consent to be controlled by the government which claims
the exclusive, monopolistic right to protect us within the
territories over which they exercise jurisdiction, the secret ballot
only entrenches the government’s power to do things that we do not
wish them to do, including to hide the results of the elections from
us, or at least from the majority of us, and only show those results
to unaccountable bureaucrats.
The
secret ballot does not protect us against intimidation and force; the
secret ballot is the basis of government intimidation and force. We
are not free to resist the government, and that is why all voting is
done under duress. We are forced to choose between the lesser of two
evils, and we are never free to choose that nobody control us.
If
any one of our politicians were asked to produce a list of the group
of people who delegated their authority to him, he would legally not
be able to do it. Our politicians can also not produce written
evidence that they ever swore an oath to support our government’s
founding document.
They
are not accountable to the people, they are not accountable to a
piece of paper, they are accountable to nobody but themselves.
Clearly the secret ballot is the problem. Whether and how an open
ballot system might be the solution remains to be seen.
I say it’s
worth a shot.
For
more entries on elections and campaign finance, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/why-voting-is-not-necessarily-evil.html
For
more entries on government secrecy and N.S.A. surveillance, please
visit:
