Calling out people for not voting, what experts term 'public shaming,' can prod someone to cast a ballot.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
If someone says, 'Democracy is a sham, those people don't speak for me... the system's rigged,' you say, 'Vote.' Someone says, 'I was making a statement by not voting,' and then you say, 'Well I can't hear it.'
They may then be willing to cast principled votes based on an educated understanding of the public interest in the face of polls suggesting that the public itself may have quite a different understanding of where its interest lies.
A lot of politicians say they want to get people out to vote; sometimes you can't totally believe they really want that.
To be confronted as you exit the polling place is really a matter of if you have the time, if you have the inclination to speak to a stranger, and if you want to divulge what is a very sacred, private matter - the way that you just voted.
What is politics but persuading the public to vote for this and support that and endure these for the promise of those?
If candidates spend money on ads and other political speech and their opponents are rewarded with government handouts to attack them, that chills speech and is unconstitutional. Non-participating candidates certainly don't volunteer to allow their opponents to receive taxpayer subsidies to bash them.
When you become active in the system and communicate to your representatives, and they don't vote in accordance with your values, your responsibility is to support candidates who will.
Voting is the foundational act that breathes life into the principle of the consent of the governed.
I would never say somebody had to vote for anybody. That would be terrible. I haven't said that.
Politicians, no matter who they are, shouldn't be able to manipulate the public on a single issue and then call an election at the height of support - that's a little bit of a manipulation of democracy.