KeyMaster45 said:
I was in a conversation with a classmate the other day who proudly proclaimed that they don't vote and have no intention of ever voting. I was kinda baffled by this so I asked why. Their response was something along the lines of "all my choices are shit, I'll vote when someone good comes along".
Too be honest, I don't understand this logic at all. Especially when said classmate goes on to discuss how our politicians were doing such a bad job at running the country. The philosophy I was brought up on is that if you don't vote, then you have little to no right to complain about how those who are elected are doing a poor job. After all, your best method of fixing the problem of someone doing a bad job as an elected official is to simply vote for their opponent or threaten to do so in a letter or phone call. Not voting is the same as voting for them, it's an affirmation that you feel things are just fine as they are and that your elected officials can continue to do as they please. (or worse that you just don't care how they run things)
tl;dr: Do you vote, why or why not?
I vote, but to say that it is the best method of fixing the problem is not accurate. The two main parties have been doing virtually the same thing for decades. They both take away our rights, help the rich and big business while screwing the middle and lower classes, and increase the size of the federal government. Trying to vote in "3rd party" is probably no better as the abuses of many municiple and state governments suggest that any politician will break their promises and infringe upon the rights of the people.
The only option left is to write-in non-political candidates, and while this is my plan from now on, I don't hold much hope that it will work. It easily could, thanks to the internet you don't need big money or political backing to run a campaign. I imagine you could run a damn good campaign for free with youtube and facebook alone. But trying to convince a large enough portion of the american people to vote for the same non-political candidate is probably a lost cause, not that I won't try.
Perhaps I should clarify what I mean by a "non-political" candidate. I mean someone who isn't a politician. Someone who isn't even running for office, hence the write-in. No campaign promises to break that way. Find some famous person who has made their beliefs clear through whatever made them famous. An author who wrote books with a strong political message perhaps. Or a news host, or even someone like Steven Corbert or Jon Stewart. Men like this have revealed what they believe in and therefore have given a good idea of how they will behave in office, all without meaning to, which will prevent them from lying about it to get votes. I'm writing in an author, Terry Goodkind.
An acceptable definition of insanity is doing the same thing over an over and expecting different results. That is what the american public has been doing in regards to voting for the last 50 years at least. I for one, have every intention of avoiding such idiotic patterns of behavior.
OT: Everyone has a right to complain when their rights are stripped from them and they are mistreated by their government. However, I feel little pity for people who aren't willing to do anything to defend themselves from it.
