If a nation has a national election with only so to speak "bad" candidates, what teachings from Tanakh, Talmud, Jewish law or Jewish ethics in general, and the mystical teachings of the Torah, can teach us about whether or not voting for the "lesser of evils" should be considered giving consent to that candidate's actions once they are elected, or to the system that produced him or her, even in cases where the voters did/do not specifically have any say in that system's creation, continuance, or significant change except for by voting?
I've come up with a better way than before, I think, to ask the question that gets beneath the surface of "should I vote or not?" and to the deeper, much more interesting layers: Say there is some fictional nation. John and Rob decide to run for its presidency. John campaigns that if elected, he will send 100,000 troops to fictional nation B. Rob campaigns he will send 50,000 troops there. The rest of the citizens want no war at all, but those are their only choices, so some vote for Rob so at least less troops will be sent.
When Rob wins and sends 50,000 troops, can he argue "they voted me in, therefore they consented to what I did" even though they had no legitimate choice really because the only other option was even worse, or can he not? Would that argument be correct, or incorrect?
The question is not "was it moral or immoral for Rob to send 50,000 troops to that nation," the question is, regardless of whether the action was moral or not, can he say they consented to it because they voted for him after he said he would do just that if elected? Or does the fact they never had a "fair" or "real" choice, or whatever word you would use, mean that they have not in any way consented to anything Rob does as president even though they voted for him, not even the things he told them he would do before they voted for him, due to the fact that they were stuck without a better choice than him? (Please assume for this question that the voters being asked about have no legitimate ability to run for president themselves due to the costs and influence required to become a legitimate candidate).
In other words, is only Rob responsible, or only Rob and John, or only Rob and John and whatever backers they had that helped ensure they would be the only two options on the ballot, for the actions Rob takes as president, or are the citizens who voted for him, or who voted period, also responsible? And does voting make the voters responsible for supporting the system itself they are voting within, even if they have no way to mass organize a nationwide "no vote" action and their individual abstainment from voting for the "lesser of evils" will not only fail to change the system, but also possibly be used as justification against them for why they got with the worse candidate? For example, we can all remember people who didn't vote being told "This is what you get for staying home and not voting!" after many elections ended with widely unpopular results.
Main question ends here, next two paragraphs are a modifier, and an idea for how to answer if people are stumped.
That's the question. This paragraph is just a modifier to it, which is, would the answers change, in the real world, depending on if it were Jewish or non-Jewish voters being asked about, or if it were an Israeli national election or a non-Jewish state's national election?
Lastly, if the question is stumping people, one idea where an answer might reveal itself is to examine, "what is the deeper spiritual meaning of voting?" Voting is something where you are putting your stamp of support to something. What effect might voting have in the higher worlds? You are literally putting your name down in support of another person, or a cause or organization, and it goes without saying how important names are in Torah and especially the mystical teachings of Torah. And yet, many times you have no good choices for who to support, thus this question. So if we can explore the deeper meanings of the Hebrew word for "vote," and what words are associated with it, especially ones singled out by authoritative sources, that might help us answer this, although there are multiple good ways to answer most questions so please don't feel constrained by this suggestion if you have other ways.
