The mysterious moral sanctimony of non-voters

I keep noticing a puzzling phenomenon which is difficult to unscramble in logical terms. Many of the people who claim to be extremely outraged over the election — and who demonstrate in the streets — simply did not vote:

More than 60% of the people arrested at recent anti-Trump demonstrations in Portland, Ore., didn’t vote in last week’s elections, according to a report.

At least 69 of the 112 demonstrators captured during marches against the incoming President-elect either were not registered to vote in Oregon or did not return their mail-in ballots, KGW-TV reported Monday. The revelations followed police accounts of violence and destruction at the protests.

The Columbia River, just north of Portland’s airport, serves as the Oregon-Washington border — so some of those arrested may well have voted outside Oregon, a mandatory mail-in state, prior to the demonstrations.

Yet the TV station checked the names and ages provided by the Portland Police Bureau following the mass arrests against Multnomah County records. The non-voter tally may be even higher, as KGW could not verify voting records for 17 others arrested.

My first guess would be that the violent non-voting demonstrators would be anarchists. Anarchists are philosophically opposed to voting. Anarchist demonstrators tend to avail themselves of whatever causes, provocations, or opportunities for mischief present themselves, so this should not be surprising to anyone who (like me) has lived in places like Berkeley.

Much as it would be easy to stop right there, I find myself unable to conclude that all of the angry non-voting demonstrators are anarchists. My attention this morning was drawn to an article about non-voting by members of the Hamilton cast (who scolded Pence after their performance):

Some members of the cast of Hamilton, who delivered a message to Vice President-elect Mike Pence about their fears of the new administration, have abstained from voting for years, records show.

Records show that eading actor Brandon Victor Dixon (who spoke for the cast) “didn’t vote during president Obama’s reelection bid in 2012.” 

I’m sure that had Romney been elected, the man would have been outraged. Now, anyone has the right to be outraged by anything, but what I’m having trouble with is the idea that a non-voter possesses any moral authority to credibly scold people who did vote for the results of an election.

Dixon’s background strikes me as more elitist than your typical demonstrator. He went to St. Albans — one of the most elite private schools in the country — and then Columbia. He is most likely surrounded by similar elitist types, but I’m still having trouble understanding their not voting.

People who voted for Hillary — or Johnson, or Stein — have a legitimate claim to being upset by the election result, and they have far more moral authority than people who sat the election out. Even the deplorable Trump voters have greater moral authority than non-voters.

I think people who didn’t vote should just shut the hell up. And certainly, they don’t deserve a platform.

What am I missing?