Why should we vote in the Puerto Rican elections?

Most Puerto Ricans will tell you that it doesn’t matter who wins the elections, because nothing will change.  Some say we should vote, because your vote is sacred.  Still others say that in a democracy, if you don’t vote, then others will make decisions for you.  That’s what former PR governor Aníbal Acevedo told me.  They all seem to have some element of common sense, as government propaganda also does.  That’s why; we must always analyze everything to determine who is telling truth!

Let’s begin with Puerto Rico (PR) being a democracy.  On the contrary, PR has always been a colony.  First, we were a colony of Spain for 405 years.  Then, we’ve been a colony of the United States (US) for 114 years ever since.  There was only a period of less than a year when we enjoyed self government in 1897, but the US refused to recognize it.  For this reason, voting in a colonial relationship makes no sense for the majority of Puerto Ricans.

Therefore, the argument that others will make decisions for you if you don’t vote makes no sense either.  The whole idea of having a colony is for exploitation.  The colony never decides anything, because the empire imposes what it wants.  That’s why most Puerto Ricans are telling the truth when they say that, no matter who wins, everything stays the same.  By everything, we mean that PR remains a colony.

Thus, the only purpose for Puerto Rican elections is to fool everybody that we have a democracy.  Who does that benefit?  Obviously, it benefits the US, because she could say to the United Nations (UN) and the international community that Puerto Ricans are happy with the status quo.  The proof is that we participate in her political process.  And, of course, it also benefits those few Puerto Ricans who have their jobs and other interests tied-up in the colonial relationship.  But they are not looking out for what’s best for the 99% of us!

As long as we continue to participate in our fake elections, and as long as the US controls the process, the international community will not interfere with a relationship that it perceives to have the support of the Puerto Ricans.  And that’s why we’ve been a colony for this long!

What about the argument of the sacred vote?  Why use a sacred vote if it will not direct government to where you want it to go?  Why not use it instead where it will cause the change that you want?  This, or course, will require breaking a bad habit.  But, we all need to do that every now and then in order to improve our quality of life!

This November 2012, boycott the Puerto Rico elections.  This would be our new way to vote.  That would cause more of a change in the status quo than actually casting our traditional vote.  How?

When the government realizes that it didn’t get the usual 85% of voter participation this year, it will then know that Puerto Ricans decided not to cooperate anymore with the lie that PR is a democracy. 

PR would then be in a great position to ask the UN to begin our decolonization process.  For those of you who may not know, decolonization is not under the jurisdiction of any country.  It is under the jurisdiction of international law.  This plan would allow us to build the domestic and international solidarity critically needed for our decolonization.

Think about this new way of voting.  If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten.  Ask yourself: Do you really want PR to stop being a colony?

Join the boycott this November and the protest at the UN on June 2013!