Not voting sends no message but "we will let politicians do as they please." - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 12/08/2012 05:37:57 PM
A complete an utter moron.
I'm not saying you have to vote for Romney or any other candidate, but voting for another 4 years of failure is ridiculous.
I am proud to say that I didn't vote for anyone in 2004. Don't be afraid to sit one out if the only option is to vote for the least bad candidate.
I'm not saying you have to vote for Romney or any other candidate, but voting for another 4 years of failure is ridiculous.
I am proud to say that I didn't vote for anyone in 2004. Don't be afraid to sit one out if the only option is to vote for the least bad candidate.
Anyone who complains about government without voting is beneath consideration: Your opinion is, by choice, irrelevant, except as a loud annoying distraction for those with sufficient civic duty to exercise self government. As the saying goes, "lead, follow, or get out of the way."
There is nothing wrong with not choosing a candidate for President when both are imbeciles (as in 2004). Our nation voting for "the lesser of two evils" over and over has come to the synthesis of our modern, flip-flopping ineffective Presidential candidates more concerned with polls and what people might think than living and dying by the side of core beliefs. I will be the first to admit that voting for Obama in 2008 was the wrong choice. I eat my crow. But, there was NO way I was going to vote for McCain. So yes, in hindsight, I should NOT have voted for either or anybody for that matter (as all the third party candidates are pretty much useless). To denigrate somebody for doing that is to take away his or her voice. If everybody would grow the set needed to say NO and the turnout for the Presidential election was something ridiculously low like 30% then maybe it would wake politicians up and tell them they had better change their tune.
So, just quit with your self-righteous "civic duty" bullshit.I and many other people are turned off by the sweet choice of Obama or Romney or, ooooh... maybe Nader will jump into the fray again. Or, maybe we can make a real statement by getting Lyndon LaRouche one tenth of one percent of the vote! Third party candidates... ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...
There are good arguments for strategically choosing the lesser of two evils, or choosing a third party to vote ones conscience and/or as a protest against the two major parties. There is NO argument for not voting at all, because it accomplishes, can accomplish, NOTHING. I did not "take away his voice:" HE did. Sure, trzaska has raised a lot of Hell since 2008 (and previously,) but it is sound and fury signifying nothing.
The proof is 30% turnout would not be "ridiculously low." In a midterm, it would only be a few points below average (midterm turnout has not reached 40% in my lifetime.) It would be a significant drop for a presidential election, yes, but only mean hyper-partisans decided it. Neither they nor their candidates mind that; many prefer it, and, despite regular references to independent/moderate voters, returns and resulting policy suggest elections already work that way (to the extent they work.)
I hate to break this to you, but as long as you take it for granted each election has a maximum of two viable candidates, neither has any incentive to take the risky chance of offering you or anyone anything: They need only make the alternative too toxically unappealing for anyone to accept. Staying home does not exactly encourage them to reach out to you; their focus is (rightly) those who actually vote. As previously noted, Dems have been trying to transform non-voters into voters since the early '70s; 2008 was the first time it worked, and more because of Bushs unpopularity than anything Dems did. 70% of the country voting for no one would just tell the two major parties no one is minding the store; 70% of the country voting for third parties would send them a far more potent message (i.e. pink slips.)
So yes, voting is, in addition to a right for which countless American soldiers have selflessly died, civic duty in any participatory democracy. Everyone who denies their own voice in choosing their government has no business complaining about the government they let the rest of us choose for them. If they do not like it, they have repeated chances to do something about it every two years in November; it is no ones fault but their own if they do not.