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Democracy Works on Self Interest

by Tracee Sioux on April 28th, 2008

Democracy only works if people vote in their own self-interest.

It’s a system entirely based on self-interest actually.

It’s a system based on the idea that if everyone votes for their own self-interest then in the end we’ll arrive at solutions that meet the MAJORITY’S interests.

You muck up the system if you start voting in other people’s self-interest - say your husband’s self interest or your company’s self-interest.

It’s not unselfish to decide your husband’s interest supersede yours. It’s not unselfish to decide your company’s interest supersede yours. It’s not unselfish - it’s stupid. It’s self-sabotage and and it’s self-defeating.

Take healthcare for instance, if you’re a woman and your insurance is tied to your husband’s job it is foolish for you to not vote for healthcare. It is in every woman’s best self-interest (and that of her children) to have equal access to an affordable insurance plan - should she be faced with her one in two chance of divorce or widowhood.

Just because you can see an employers’ point in not wanting you to take a longer maternity leave, doesn’t mean you should perceive their interest as more valid than your own.

To vote otherwise leaves you (and therefore your children) with a high risk of unemployment, a higher risk of poverty should you become pregnant and take longer leave, or a high risk of maternal guilt for leaving your children in daycare earlier than you want.

I’m starting to wonder if women are capable of defining their own self-interests.

Has acting in our own self-interest been trained out of women, with our constant admonitions to share, be fair, sacrifice, be unselfish and “try to see it my way?”

I’m disturbed and disappointed by women’s refusal to lay claim to our own interests or our inability or our refusal to acknowledge and to distinguish between competing interests. Are we not politically sophisticated enough to tell the difference?

I don’t see men making this mistake in the election booth. Men understand that unless they vote in their own self-interest NO ONE ELSE WILL. Women really need to get to that place.

To choose someone else’s interests over your own is quite simply self-sabotage.

In a Democracy the only right action is to ask yourself “How is this going to effect ME?” And then vote accordingly.

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POSTED IN: Fabulous Culture, Fabulous Mars & Venus, Fabulous Politics