buttons and bumper stickers
As much as I like trinkets and swag, I don't think they do much good in my hands. None of my friends is going to vote for X simply because I vote for X. My friends think for themselves. If I'm voting for X and they're voting for Y, some might ask why I'm voting for X, and I'll lay out my reasons, and they might change their minds. But then they're voting for X because of those reasons, not because I'm voting for X. They might also give me reasons to vote for Y. But I won't be voting for Y simply because they are.
We're not friends because we vote the same way. We may vote the same way because we share values and outlooks, and a sense of how the world should work, and notions of what is right and good.
On reflection, it does matter to me how other people vote, because it does affect whom I vote for. Ideally, we would all vote for the candidate who represents us best. But our votes are split between many candidates. There's 6 parties running for President on our local ballot (Democratic, Republican, Independent, Green, Independent Green, and Libertarian), but only 2 are real possibilities. The only meaningful votes are cast for those 2 parties - either for the one, or against the other. So I am not voting for the party/candidate that represents me best. I am voting for the candidate I find acceptable of the 2 who are viable. And in that context, the buttons and bumper stickers (and the polling that's been going on for months) are anecdotal evidence of where a vote can count for something.
