Government and Elections

An ideal government is not something that is likely to be established, nor is it something whose image can be agreed upon. However, using the power of the ballot box, one should not be prevented from advocating for their own vision of government.

Voting is a tool that can be both powerful and partially insignificant; powerful, obviously, because it changes and retains leadership; insignificant, because not all votes will count. That, of course, depends on the party system in your country.

Israel consists of a multi-party government and parliament, unlike in countries such as the U.S., which mainly has the Republican and Democratic parties.

Whenever we have an election in Israel, not all eligible parties will make it to power, which means that plenty of political organizations will not make it at all to either the parliament or the government.

This is why I wrote in the previous paragraph that even if you have a party whose ideology and vision are close to your heart, there might be a chance that if you vote for them, you will basically waste your vote because they won't make it either way -- hence the insignificant part that might exist in this whole ordeal.

When voting, idealism shouldn't always be in the picture, because even if you are loyal to your philosophy by doing so, you might end up wasting your vote.

Thus, a balance should be struck between your ideal vision of government, society, and so on and the realistic possibility of a preferred party being elected. Because of that, a compromise should be made, if one wants to make a change in their local nation, even at the price of being less loyal to one's heart.

I've learned it the hard way. There was a time when multiple elections were held because the winning leaders of the elected parties were unable to form a government with the rest of those who won a seat in parliament.

The first party I've ever voted for, had its leader betray her ideology completely, by abandoning it and joining an opposite party, which I had no intention of voting for. I was disappointed in my choice, but I guess it didn't matter as our country is not very politically stable.

Imagine how the fate of a multi-party nation would be if, let's say, all the voters who won for parties that do not have the chance to make it anyway instead voted for far more relevant and powerful parties. That could change the future of one's country through the underrated power of compromise. In Israel, one of the more obscure parties is called the "Pirate Party."

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Party_of_Israel) It's one of the most insignificant parties in my country. However, I actually sympathize with 2 of its major principles: free internet as a democratic right and increased freedom of speech (as long as it does not hurt anyone).

Nonetheless, I would probably never vote for them. Doing so would render my vote useless. Making a change, in other words, doesn't mean you have to do it with full loyalty to your ideology, as that could be counterproductive.

There are two ways you can change the effectiveness of your vote: either be influential enough to convince others to vote the same as you do, or compromise for another party that is as similar as it can be while still having a chance at getting a seat. When you're a hermit like me, with no local influence, all you can do is compromise.

I guess that, even if my target audience were Israelis, I would still not be as effective as, let's say, getting the Pirate Party even a single seat. Despite my following, I recognize the fact that I am not as influential as, say, a Tik-Tok or Instagram star. Even if I was one, Israel has quite a big population regardless, one of 9 million.

The possible reason as to why one may not like their current government is not because they didn't vote loyally, but because of the opposition voters, who happened to be more significant. The decision of the majority is a compromise itself, arguably, because of elimination.

An ideal government is not something that is likely to be established, nor something whose image can be agreed upon. However, this should not stop one from advocating their own vision of government by the power of voting.

Voting is a tool that can be both powerful and partially insignificant; powerful, obviously because it changes and retains leadership; insignificant because not all votes will count. That, of course, depends on the party system of your country.

Israel consists of multi-party government and parliament, unlike in countries such as the U.S who mainly has the Republican and the Democratic parties. Whenever we Israelis have an election, not all eligible parties will make it to power, which means that plenty of political organizations will not make it at all to neither parliament nor government.

This is why I wrote in the previous paragraph, that even if you have a party whose ideology and vision are close to your heart, there might be a chance that if you vote for them, you will basically waste your vote because they won't make it either way -- hence the insignificant part that might exists in this whole ordeal.

When voting, idealism shouldn't always be in the picture, because even if you will be loyal to your philosophy by doing so, you might end up wasting your vote.

Thus, a balance should be made, between your ideal vision of government, society and so on, and between the realistic possibility of a preferred party to be elected. Because of that, a compromise should be made, if one wants to make a change in their local nation, even at the price of being less loyal to one's heart.