but your first question seems unrelated—as if it exists only to be snarky.
Oh, that is unintended. Apologies. The last couple times I’ve encountered that word used it was a placeholder for “vague feelings of dis/approval”, though I should probably give LW more credit. I still have doubts about the usefulness of ‘legitimacy’ as a metric.
Do you disagree that voting reinforces the sense of the populace that the democratically elected government has a “right to rule”?
No, I agree with that. Though, if the ‘sense of the populace’ was a reliable, efficient weapon of change then wouldn’t democracy be the government of choice?
Also, this is my first post on LW. Hello!
What do you mean by ‘legitimacy’?
How does activist non-participation accomplish anything when it looks no different from apathy to an outsider? Any medium you might use to spread your message can be used regardless of if you vote or not. You might as well vote for a lesser evil while claiming non-participation, unless you think a possible greater evil will be somehow more likely to dissolve its own power.