Think of it like voting to change the thermostat
Say you want 72F and neither candidate is close. Well, no party is going to think they can get away with running a candidate who is pushing for 72F when the existing options are 32F and 212F. A progressive party might think 35F is ok or even 40F but 72F? Surely they would just lose the election outright.
By putting in for the 32F team, you’re trying to bring the average temperature closer to 72F. If you and a few million like you start pushing together, the party will eventually start running candidates calling for 40, 50, 60 degrees. 72F may be a long way off but if you don’t move the needle the candidates never get better.
So for now? Vote for 32F, hand out blankets, and tell everyone else the end goal is 72F. Reassess if/when we progress if the best choice is still the cold team.
This assumes single-dimensional political repercussions, though, which i don’t personally consider a good analogy.
Imagine if they not only set temperature, but also humidity, average rainfall, barometric pressure, wind speed, intensity and frequency of sunflares and chancea of tornado. Imagine if the person handling the thermostat set it for millions of locations with different needs simultaneously.
Imagine if your expectations were likely to be missed by a longshot in all regards and furthermore, all the information you were given regarding any possible consequences was completely untrustworthy.
This is what politics feels like, to me, in latin america.
Hope i’m wrong and you guys have it better. Best of luck.
I will throw what is likely an unpopular opinion. I think what you are doing is responsible. If you don’t actually feel like any candidate is any worse than the others, in any way, in even the least way ; then I think you are doing the right thing. If you vote randomly, with no basis at all, doing eannny, meanny, minne, moe or such. Its way better to not vote. Now if you think any candidate is even the slightest bit worse for your country than the others ; then you should vote. I have much more respect for you deciding you have no basis to cast a ballot and choosing not to do so than some folks in my country who seeing and acknowledging a greater evil choose to not vote to punish the lesser evil for not being good enough. Your take as I read it is sensible.
