David McElroy

When you were in school, you were probably taught in civics classes that you have a duty to vote. It wasn’t just that you had a right to vote, but rather that you owed it to everyone else to vote. Many people still believe what was drilled into their 11-year-old heads.

The comment above was from a discussion on Facebook Saturday night, mostly between libertarians over the issue of whether it’s morally acceptable to vote or not. In the middle of heated exchanges over whether it was immoral to vote or simply being acceptably pragmatic to do so, a woman posted this. Clearly, she thinks it’s a trump card — duty. She has no need to lay out a rational argument. She has the faith of the state religion, and that’s all she thinks she needs.

There are too many angry arguments between libertarians and anarcho-capitalists and voluntaryists and whatever else we want to call ourselves over issues such as this. We can each choose our own path and let others do the same. But it’s important to realize that we have a common enemy. That enemy is a state that teaches children that they have a duty to obey it and perpetuate it. We have to quit fighting each other and get busy planning for what to do after that beast is dead or irrelevant.