Voting

[Duemellon]

The first question, and the one for the poll, is whether or not you are voting.

[tobedawg]

I do plan to vote, eventhough there isn't anything major happening in my town this year.. Just a city council election and a measure to give more funding to schools (that will very likely pass)..

[vinegurl]

voting, see I just did.
I do have a comment on this, how are we in KY suppose to know whats going on when we are blasted with information from cincinnati only? So I will be an uninformed voter - whats worse to vote uninformed or not vote?

[DogStarMan]

Yep...I love the smell of a polling booth in the morning.

[foolsgold]

Originally posted by DogStarMan
Yep...I love the smell of a polling booth in the morning.

This is so funny for me, considering I stood in line behind a man with horrific BO. The smell was so bad that I almost voted for Roy McGrath. ;)

Luckily, a cool wind refreshed me!

[Juliana]

I'm heading over after school sometime today. I think I'll be able to if I just take my unused absentee ballot. I should remember, since I worked the polls last year, but I don't. Just bummed that I couldn't do it again this year. Yay for civic duty.

[DogStarMan]

Originally posted by foolsgold
This is so funny for me, considering I stood in line behind a man with horrific BO. The smell was so bad that I almost voted for Roy McGrath. ;)

Luckily, a cool wind refreshed me!
Yah, I should've closed with a [/sarcasm] tag. Every time I go to vote, the dang place reeks of moth balls or halitosis...I'm not sure which.

[butter_of_69]

Hey, if you don't vote, don't complain!

:p

[lawdog]

Originally posted by foolsgold
This is so funny for me, considering I stood in line behind a man with horrific BO. The smell was so bad that I almost voted for Roy McGrath. ;)

Luckily, a cool wind refreshed me!

Sorry, FG, I drove over to the polling place early, before my shower.

And yeah, I always vote, even if it's just for school board and zoo renovation.

[matt]

Dave Mustaine said it best: "If I'm going to get screwed, at least I can pick who will screw me."

[DogStarMan]

Originally posted by butter_of_69
Hey, if you don't vote, don't complain!

:p
Oh, I vote...it just always smells funny. I think it's the smell of old people dying.

[Duemellon]

We are told that voting is the pinnacle of our participation in this great democratic society of ours. We are told that if we don't vote we are being disrespectful to the millions of lives lost to secure us that right. If we don't vote we are told that we can't complain.

Lies, all lies.

Voting is the doggie treat. It is the Thank You card they send us for taking our taxes and ignoring our needs. It is the epitome of sedation and appeasement. It does nothing to change government, locally, or nationally.

Myth #1
The U.S. Is a Democracy
We are not. We are a republic, first and foremost. Any attempt to say we are a democracy our primary government description is misleading in kindest terms. If our society really believed that the majority should rule, that idea would manifest itself in companies, daily life, and even religious structure. You can, however, easily find examples in our society where representation or a non-numeric-majority govern the situation. When you vote you are voting for someone who you feel represents your interests. Once in power the amount of times they'll ask you for support, or input, will be few and far between. You elected them to do THEIR bidding on the pretense that they believed the same as you.

Remember you're voting some to represent you but they will only be able to represent their own moral compass and interests unless they were to ask their constituents for input into their decisions every day.

2ndly
Voting Is The Purest Form Of Social Participation
Strange enough this isn't true. In fact it's one of the weakest forms of participation. When you endow an individual with the ability to govern you as a councilmember, governor, or president, you basically let them go do what they want after they're appointed. Sure there are means to remove them afterwards but those ways are wrought with means to diffuse, trap, or dissuade you from finishing it. In fact, to do it you really need to get another elected representative to do it for you! Once you cast your vote the power is out of your hands.

Voting happens once, maybe twice a year, but you live with the consequences of your representative's actions without the ability to influence them as easily as you elected them for the next 362 days.

C: If You Don't Vote You Have No Say
Easily proven false by looking at the power non-voting-entities have over the government: Businesses; military; media; rioters; and foreign powers. If I don't agree with the direction the policymakers are going, I might threaten to move my billion dollar business out of the valley-area. Perhaps I can tell them if they tax me I'll fire 1300 people. Yet, as an individual, if I told the government that if they taxed me I'll stop taking care of my children or give my child an allowance, they'd laugh at me. Now if the situation is going wrong with a representitive I didn't elected than I can go picket them, maybe riot, maybe slander them (in the guise of investigative reporting) and probably get a response to my demands.

Power is power, voting is a form of it but there are so many other ways of being powerful.

Voting is the means which our government wants us to express our interests. It gives us a feel-good burst of patriotism and gets us to defend our representatives more quickly so that we aren't proven wrong for our choice. Voting is the reward we get for obedience, complicity, and suppression of dissent. Voting is the way we exercise our right to be futile while we cast votes for people who are 90% actor and only 10% different from each other. Voting is how we chose between being disenfranchised by a candidate on the left or on the right, as we hand them the power to decide our fate without means of influencing their actions for another 727 days before the next election.

Thanks for voting,... now there's a good boy.

[Duemellon]

for those ppl who think they have some power after voting...

How many of you knew we'd be voting in an additional $87 billion for this war by having Bush in there? Yeah, those who voted him in, I'm asking you.

How many of you knew we'd be voting in the ban on partial-birth/late-term abortion (or whatever you call it)?

How many knew we'd be voting in the Patriot Act?

I mean, we didn't get a say on any of those b/c we elected them to do THEIR bidding according to THEIR moral compasses after they convinced US that they held the same belief system.

Can't vote those down now.