Politics sucks

If you don't vote, you have no right to complain. If you do, then cast your vote and help convince others to do the same. We are the ones that put these people into power.

 

We are? How about corporate sponsors?

 

What about those who exercise civil dissidence by not supporting either candidate?

 

I dissagree. we get to make a gesture towards which party rules. They put themselves in power , we are semi-involved.

 

They are simply not standing up for themselves and letting others control their fate. That is fine for some people but whenever I hear people complain about politicians who don't vote, I just shake my head. If you don't like a politician, you can protest, give money, or even join a campaign to get someone else into power. But if you just sit on your ass and complain, I have no sympathy. Now I'm not trying to say that is what all you guys do. There are plenty of politically active people on this forum.

As far as corporate sponsors, they give money to run adds to convince you who to vote for. You still have the power to vote as you please. We, in the United States and in many other countries, play an active role in our politics. If you don't like something, it is within your power to try and change it. We obviously won't always succeed but if we don't try, nothing is ever going to change.

 

How do you know people who do not vote have not done these things; joined a campaign, donated, protested, etc?

 

Because voting is the one voice you get that actually has a guarantee of being heard. All other forms of political expression can just as easily be ignored by the powers that be. Supporting a campaign and not voting is pointless.

 

Yes you can vote for the lesser of the evils, but anyone who does not serve the corporate interest will never be elected to any position of power. They own the most powerful tool on earth - the media. It is a democracy. The corporations rule the many, so the corporations also rule the few.

 

The people who didn't get their votes counted in the recount in 2000 in FLA would disagree about that whole "gauarantee of being heard" thing.

Also the people who live in counties in Ohio where more people voted for Bush in 2004 than actually voted (yes there were districts where 10,000 people voted and Bush got 12,000 votes) would disagree too.


It's all a sham.

It's a false left/right "the parties are opposite ends of a spectrum" paradigm. The parties are only different in the rhetoric they use to get elected. When they get into office, they are sold out to the same Corporations.

Republicans give lip service to smaller Government and personal liberty, then they get elected to office and they spend like drunken Democrats and start bullshit like the War on Drugs and pass things like the PATRIOT Act.

Democrats give lips service to protecting the people from the excesses of business and guaranteeing healthcare for all. Then they get elected and take money from the tax payers to bail out banks without any conditions on the bailout and come up with a healthcare bill that is a handout to insruance companies.

Meanwhile, the people get shit on.

But the people can't see beyond this false left/right thing.

Liberals hated the FEMA camps when they heard about them under Bush. It was a sign that the country was headed for a fascist state with Bush at the helm. Bush supporters poopooed it as crazy conspiracy theory mumbo jumbo.

The Obama gets elected, leaves 95% of the Bush era legacy in place, and suddenly the rightwingers are the ones crying about the FEMA camps and how the country is headed for a fascist state with Obama at the helm. Democrats poopoo it as crazy conspiracy theory mumbo jumbo.

The FEMA camps are just an example. Everything else about politics is the same way. The words speak louder than the actions to most people. They don't see through the rhetoric and vitriol and what the politicians and pundit say is more important to them than what actually happend.

There are minor policy differences, but the end result is the same. The means change, but they are working towards the same ends - getting rich for themselves suckling off the corporate tit and basing policy on what the corporate donors tell them.

 

Ever heard the expression "A drop in the bucket"? Just because you are supposedly "heard" by voting doesn't necessarily mean your vote actually makes any measurable difference, nor does it necessarily mean that the option to vote is representative of one's preferences, wants, needs, desires, philosophies or beliefs. We're ultimately given two primary candidates in presidential elections in the US. Are you suggesting that those two candidates are universally representative of every single voting citizen within the US?

Thousands, if not tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, if not millions of eligible voters are ignored, in a certain sense, every election cycle.

Ever look at statistics which document the ratio of registered voters vs. the number of people who actually show up at the polls and vote? Do you think mere laziness is the primary factor in the unbalance of this ratio? Or is it something much more fundamental?

How is supporting a campaign and then not voting pointless? What happens when you support a campaign and the political party ends up choosing someone other than the person you were supporting? What if the person they chose is exceedingly flawed in comparison to the one you were supporting, in your opinion? Is the mere act of voting, and thus choosing a lesser of two evils somehow more justified than choosing to withdraw your support for either candidate?