Democracy is embedded with many illusions. One is that people, or voters, get what they deserve. That’s not correct. Voters don’t get what they deserve or what they anticipate before casting their vote.
Neither those who voted for the winning candidate nor those who did not vote for him/her, and certainly not those who made no effort to vote at all.
What all citizens indeed get is a compromised future for themselves and the generations to come. In India, elections are an eye-opening example, unfortunately repeated every season, and voters’ mood moves from enthusiasm before the polls to bewilderment after seeing the parties and candidates switching alliances. They call it horse-trading.
Simply equating a group’s numerical strength with the merits of individual wisdom has led democracy down a dangerous path. The way caste, cost, community, and temporary benefits influence a group’s electoral choices is deeply troubling, and at times, it has been detrimental or even proven to be suicidal for that group as well as other citizens in the long run.
There is no such thing as a collective consciousness. A hysterically driven group of people passionate about such ideas lacks integrity. Voting blindly in this way without informed and reasoned participation risks becoming a tool for manipulation rather than empowering the masses that democracy is supposed to serve.
Voters selling their ballot for temporary benefits of whatsoever nature given by the politician don’t realise at the time of voting that nothing comes free in this world. Politicians rarely, or rare politicians, work to the benefit of the public at large as much as he does for their own and their party’s coffers.
The politician who invested a large sum of money, after winning an election, must fill his bank account many times over the amount he invested. And that money only comes from fleecing voters and taxpayers through corruption.
In other words, the corrupt system is so deeply compromised that everyone is aware of it through repeated experiences – citizens, bureaucrats, business leaders, and politicians.
A small number of people might receive temporary benefits from some dole programs. The citizens at large are left baffled as they weigh the future cost of current benefits passed on only to a small group of people in the form of social welfare direct benefits or loan waiver schemes.
It’s a travesty of truth that the first-class intelligent, so-called persons of reason, mediocre and outright buffoons, are all fooled by a politician with fake promises.
In the process, they all gamble their present for the promised future made by politicians during elections, even though everyone knows that promises are meant to be broken, especially those made during election campaigns. This is because no one is held accountable for it.
Corrupt voters elect corrupt politicians and blame the system. They cannot blame each other. A voter who has sacrificed his future for immediate short-term gain can no longer question the politician he voted for.
That voter, in the process, also invalidated the vote of an informed and reasoned voter who supported the opposing candidate. Voters tend to view misconduct by politicians from their own ethnic group or favored party as less serious than misconduct by candidates from other parties or communities. History shows that strong partisans are less likely to change their vote away from a corrupt candidate.
At times, there is the TINA factor – There Is No Alternative. Some Voters may support a corrupt politician not because they condone corruption, but because they perceive the alternative to be worse. Corruption is a significant cost to society and a barrier to public prosperity, yet corrupt politicians get elected thanks to corrupt voters.
The system is indeed created, nurtured, and maintained by both parties. The situation is such that people support causes that lead to their own destruction. Voters have a short-term perspective, while politicians have a long-term vision. Their focus differs: voters are concerned with immediate gains for their community, whereas politicians prioritize their personal wealth.
