I will not vote and this is the reason why.

a reply to: grandmakdw

If you do not vote, then you cannot complain is the most touted phrase during election cycles, and is also the most illegitimate garbage argument I have ever heard, for anything.

For a start, even when there are more than two parties which might see themselves winning an election, if the choices are a) a bastard, b) a bastard for different reasons c) a bastard with yet another angle, who is yet a total bastard, you should not be forced to pick between these. All arguments to the contrary clearly miss the point, which is that even a tactical vote can give a mandate to a candidate or party, with whom the voter themselves shares not one singular value in common.

Because it is impossible to run a campaign which has a hope in hell of winning, unless one happens to have a millionaire or three on hand to pump up ones public image, with PR moves, and a whole bunch of other fakery, normal, regular folk who want to do right by their nation will never get a look in at a position worth a crap. So, not only is the election rigged from the get go by the lack of decent candidates, but it also is rigged against good candidates coming forward, because cost is prohibitive.

Voting for any candidate in that scenario legitimises the hegemony, one which most people on balance, do not agree with!

Unless ballot papers have a section which clearly reads "none of the above" and unless putting your mark on that part of the paper means that enough people voting that way will result in NO government until better candidates, candidates and parties which really DO represent the people are allowed a shot, then there is no value in engaging with the process. No vote, IS a protest vote, and it should be read that way.

Low voter turnout is NOT bad for elections. It is bad for parties, candidates, and policies, because during a term of office which was won by a poorly attended ballot, a party cannot be said to have gained a real mandate to enact policy. If only twenty percent of people voted and fifty five percent of those elected an official, that official is not legitimately in control.

If candidates were engaging the public, if they could be trusted to be honest, and OBEY the will of the people in all matters, then people would vote. It is the fault of those running, those backing them, those spending obscene amounts of money on campaigning, those who believe party politics is relevant in this century, that folk are believing that not voting is a legitimate way forward, because it is the behaviour of political parties, politicians, and their benefactors which disgust people, causing voter apathy in the first place.

The people are the ones who ought to be served by the politics of their nation. It is not within their power however, to force change at an acceptable rate by voting, and this they know now, as the illusion has grown thinner every year. Politics is the problem, not voter apathy. Eligible persons who do not vote, are no less patriotic, and have EVERY right to complain. They are the only demographic worth a brass damn in the whole fiasco!

originally posted by: IAMTAT
I wish more voters felt like you when Obama was running in 08 and 12.
Six years of the crap you speak about could've been avoided.

You would have had McCain instead.......not much of a improvement..... In fact the USA would have boots on the ground in Syria/Iran and Ukraine by now and likely there would be a draft too by now.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Ok that's the best reasoning and explanation for not voting I have ever heard and understood. What about the write in option though? Because we usually are not just voting for candidates but propositions which can and have been, raising our electric, water and living costs through the roof. Or releasing criminals or whatever messed up thing they try to pass off as a good/bad idea.

Like the High Speed rail here in CA, I might lose my house or have a HSR train about 400 feet from my home, depending what route they choose. Shrug, I'm just disgusted with the world anymore and waiting to die personally heh. Let me off this ride, it isn't fun anymore.

I still think our votes just get trashed because whatever "they" want will happen no matter what we vote, but I've always felt like I had to try.

Lil

a reply to: crazyewok

No no no

McCain is a rino, Republican in name only.
He would have been Obama light. Pardon the pun.

I have a hard time getting out to vote.

One, because as someone not high up in the food chain, I see a sudden burst of work from the higher ups that needs to get done here on voting day- getting out of the office is suddenly really hard on election day... seems to happen every year. Not sure if its intentional or not.

Two, because I've got a few choices of who to vote for... and they're all wrong. They straight up lie about what they will do, and then throw mud at each other until someone gets elected- then they go about their closed door corrupt BS making the world a better place for themselves.

Nobody will cut police funding- that would be "less safe!"- gotta spend more so we can have bigger swat teams roaming the city, apparently.
Not that the money means anything- the rules are made up and the points don't matter

Sad state of affairs, we've got, here.

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71
a reply to: crazyewok

No no no

McCain is a rino, Republican in name only.
He would have been Obama light. Pardon the pun.

Obama/McCain both twats to me.

South park sums it all up to me.

a reply to: crazyewok

Totally agree.
I wanted Hillary to win the Democratic nomination. I didn't agree with her policies but I don't think is as clueless a BO..

a reply to: Lilroanie

I am increasingly of the opinion that many developed nations should adopt a distributed democracy, where the people vote for agendas and for policies, not for parties, by way of user trackable internet polls. At the moment voting once every four years, simply means that folk select who screws them next. They have no control over how, for how long every night, or if they will get dinner and a show out of it as well.

At the moment then, people have no realistic control over their own destiny, or that of their nation. You could vote in any party you like, and they would be under no obligation to fulfil any of their campaign promises, enact any policies they campaigned on during the election period, or indeed represent the people who voted for them in any way, and the people have no recourse in that instance, as evidenced by the last thirty years of politics in the USA, and the United Kingdom.

It makes me angry as all hell, because good people fought and died to give us freedom to choose our fate, and it seems as if everything possible has been done to erode those freedoms. No doubt a properly distributed democracy would have its problems, but surely anything would be preferable to the back door tyranny which had been the order of the day.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Sounds plausible if it would work. I believe things have gone too far at this point for the people of any country to fix it though. Some form of major worldwide reset is needed. But the "regular" people are too brainwashed, complacent, or ignorant to ever do anything that will work. Because anything less than everyone not running things rising up is pointless at this point in the game.

I get so mad at people when I tell them we have lost most of our freedoms, for example, they live in a constitution free zone, and they laugh. Our community is within the 100 miles of a border/ocean like most of Americans. Yet they have no clue or don't care because they have the million dollar house (for now) and the 100k car (for now) it doesn't affect them.

For myself I doubt I'll see the end play, but for my daughter I worry. Fortunately she is smart and playing the game for now while making plans for if/when it goes totally down the crapper.

Lil

ALL people that do not vote aught to be put up against a wall and shot. Thousand of people actually died to give you just the chance to vote. Yes actually lost their lives for you and you come up with all these mealy mouthed excuses not to vote. If you don't vote do you think there is some one somewhere upset or even bothered that you didn't vote, will it be on the national news somebody didn't vote because they didn't like the candidates. Just grow up and look at all the options who to vote for, even if you hate all of them and their policies and vote for which ever you choose. Cos it's a god given surety than if they took the chance to vote off you that you would be the first one to shout about the loss.

originally posted by: crayzeed
ALL people that do not vote aught to be put up against a wall and shot.

So because I don't vote I should be killed? F### you... I see what kind of Nazi jackboot society you want to live in. I know the oxygen supply might be a little low with your head so far up your ass but... think what you are saying for a second, just think...

a reply to: CagliostroTheGreat

Cannot you realise that the very society that has no vote is the Nazi jackboot society. Let me tell you how it went. Hitler got voted in by a landslide vote through false promises then when he attained full power stopped all democratic processes ie took the right to vote off all Germans so they couldn't vote him out. THAT is the very reason why you SHOULD vote because if you don't there is a chance there might be a minority party that gets in that does just that. If that happens then sites like this will never ever exist and me and you WOULD really be put up against a wall.

a reply to: crayzeed

ALL people that do not vote aught to be put up against a wall and shot.

Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?

Thousand of people actually died to give you just the chance to vote.

I'm sorry that they fell for that propaganda.

Yes actually lost their lives for you and you come up with all these mealy mouthed excuses not to vote.

So did they die for us or for us to have a right to vote?

If you don't vote do you think there is some one somewhere upset or even bothered that you didn't vote, will it be on the national news somebody didn't vote because they didn't like the candidates.

Yea, I've seen many advertisements/commercials to get more people to vote. Lack of interest in voting is a known issue and they wonder why.

Just grow up and look at all the options who to vote for, even if you hate all of them and their policies and vote for which ever you choose.

Why would I vote for someone with policies I hate? You make zero sense here.

Cos it's a god given surety than if they took the chance to vote off you that you would be the first one to shout about the loss.

They already voted us off along with you with their corrupt system. Your vote doesn't matter, they will manipulate it however they like. How much did the corporations pay you to spread this propaganda?

a reply to: crayzeed

That is one of the weakest arguments I have ever heard. A political party just like the Nazis has the potential to do just that, NOW, under current policies! Do you HONESTLY believe that your votes matter? I can see you convincing yourself they do if the candidate that you backed won but it doesn't matter because there is so much money being put into the system that your vote is not even worth a penny compared to the money that others are backing candidates with!

If a group wanted to (assuming they already have not) take control of our political system it could be done. I for one believe it has already happened long ago, during project paperclip, but that's just me.

a reply to: CagliostroTheGreat
I think you aught to read my post again. Nowhere did I say that any party would try what Hitler did. I was explaining to you the mechanism and what would happen if you didn't have the vote. Let me tell you a real story about how voting can change governments and what governments did to take that vote away from you.In 1972 a conservative government was brought down by people voting against them. Oh you've heard about it! All the propaganda of Mrs Thatchers government on how the unions brought a government down. Now sit and think on this. The unions are the people, the people democratically voted against the government. The people not the unions. The unions was only the way to get a mass of people voting yet all you hear is the unions this the unions that. Now when Mrs Thatcher got voted in she systematically destroyed the steel industry, the car manufacturing industry, the ship building industry and the coal industry. That was not to destroy these industries but to destroy the unions and voting mechanism of those industries therefore taking the only power the ordinary man on the street had of trying to control a government. THAT'S the power you have in your hands but don't realise it. You just go along believing your vote doesn't count. And that's all I want to say on that matter.

Ditto OP! "No one rules if no one obeys"- David Icke


The game is rigged anyway, that is quite obvious. I will no longer participate in their bullsh$t anymore. There is no fixing this thing, the well intentioned ideas and echo's of wisdom that founded this nation have been cast asunder by greasy, greedy Quislings. We need a change in consciousness. Have you had ENOUGH yet?

a reply to: crayzeed

My country has, for at least thirty years, if not more, been run by a succession of cretins, each more toxic and foul than the last. Whether we are talking of the evils of the Thatcher years and the following years under John Major, or the utterly appalling display put on during the extended Labour reign, which included that plastic bastard Blair, who lied to the entire nation, day after day about his motivations in terms of foreign policy, or whether we are talking about Gordon Brown who followed him, without ever being elected, or if we are talking about the horrific balls up that this current government has been from start to finish, the fact remains that in terms of what the result was, we NEVER got what we voted for.

We never got the policies we voted for, we never got the government we asked for, and if anything, that aspect has been starker under this terrible abortion of a parliament that we are living under now, than at any time in the last twenty five to thirty years. My grandfathers both fought to ensure the freedom of their country, and to liberate other countries in Europe from Nazi domination. One was a teacher, who educated the young, and the other was a vocal and vitriolic supporter of the NHS and other social welfare programs, during the creation of the welfare state. Their example is not lost on me, I am not ignorant of the sacrifices made on my behalf in times long past.

However, I would be doing them no service, by accepting the state of affairs we have today in my country, by accepting that the only power I, or any other citizen ought to have, is to vote once every four years, merely to validate the power being vested in a person who is not worthy of it. I withold my vote precisely BECAUSE I respect the honour done me by my ancestors, and I choose NOT to lend my weight to the cause of people who do not have the best interests of my country at heart.

You can disagree with the action, but you cannot deny that it is legitimate to take that position. I choose to honour my ancestors by refusing to vote for a party or politician who proves to me by their every word and deed, that they are not worthy of the power they covet. When a candidate comes forward who is not morally deplorable, who refuses to be a part of the hegemony, who will give their all and take NOTHING from the people in return, THEN I will vote for that person, then there will be an election in which I can vote without spitting on the memories of those who gave me that right.