People should be able to sell their votes

I happen to think voting is generally a waste of time. I’m unlikely to move the needle on any major issues, especially since I’m not in a swing state. However, even if I could move the needle, I fail to understand why people couldn’t employ payment as a tool of persuasion.

Part of expressive rights include the ability to sell or enlist them for a cause. If I can’t sell my speechwriting or value it, it’s a clear violation of my right to do so. If the art I produce can’t be sold, it becomes less valuable to me to create. Part of our rights include the ability to decide what aims we wish to support.

The argument against selling votes is threefold, it creates undue pressure, can tamper with elections, and messes with our sacred view of decision making outcomes.

Of these, I think only the third is true, but I’m not sure that we should maintain this sacred view of our institutions.

Politics at its best deals directly with the big questions of who owns what. Elections are a collaborative decision making-tool to bring about harmony is the view of people who may disagree with me. Adding money into this does nothing good, and distracts from decisions. However, this view fails to consider the ways in which elections are already decided by social and unrelated pressures. Trying to fit in, or please a partner is a common reason why people vote a specific way. Having an affinity with guns or a hatred of DJT is enough for many people. No one bats an eye at the stupid reasons people vote until money is involved. Yet, if relationships can impact people’s votes more than money, you’d expect some prioritization to take place.

Next is the issue of tampering with elections, the idea being that people who make lots of money will have undue influence. In ANY system certain people have undue influence because people have varying degrees of competence. A skilled speaker can change the minds of thousands of people. Why would we think that billionaires are likely to be much more effective? Also, claims about tampering with elections are regularly used to decry anyone doing anything with any influence. Take news for instance. The news reports on whether things are doing well or poorly, largely in an attempt to shape our opinions. They get paid, why can’t we?

Finally, there’s this foreboding sense that not everything should be for sale. Fortunately, my opinion is in the minority. Therefore, I can sell my vote without changing election outcomes (I kid, I kid). I think the bigger problem with voting is this sacredness we attach to it. There’s a mandate from the will of the masses. If we were to detach from that and view politics as more of a set of transactions, I think we would have better outcomes. If we began asking what is this worth to my bottom line.