Voting

[angelface]

Ok this is a subject brought up on another board I visit. I will pose the question to you all.


If a person does not exercise their right and DUTY to vote should they complain about the way the government is?

[strangewill]

Originally Posted by angelface

Ok this is a subject brought up on another board I visit. I will pose the question to you all.


If a person does not exercise their right and DUTY to vote should they complain about the way the government is?

Depends, the system is skewed.

Due to the electoral voting, pure numbers don't matter, but states grabbed, if my state voted the way I want to, truth is my vote was called whether I physically voted or not.

So I think you can say that if your state votes for who you would have voted for, that technically is going to be the same thing, and you can go ahead and complain.



Then again, you can always do the "there was no one worth voting for, and thats my complaint". While this two party system in theory works because "oh, no one can win with <50% of the vote", you don't realize that the best of the primary candidates only matches up with 70% of the ideas I agree on, not to mention he probably wont even make it to election day.

Thirdly, if your state always votes a certain party, it's quite unfair, your voice is never heard, hence I can understand why not voting after the past 20 years of watching your vote go to waste.

In other words, as long as you're somewhat logical about why you're complaining, go ahead...

[joehill]

Like Will and Shoes pointed out, I feel everybody has the right to complain about our"leaders"...

Some might even argue, "don't blame me...I didn't vote"..

I often wonder as well, if it does any good..I have been disappointed to say the least in the democrats "lack of vigor" in seeking investigating/prosecution of republican criminals..Why isn't Harriet Myers in jail for contempt of Congress?

If as Shoes said, if you poll 200 people that's the same as 200 million, than I am certain that 04 was stolen as well..

I drove my cab that night, and I polled EVERYONE who said they voted...

NOT ONE admitted to voting for Bush..Not ONE.

[icantinaturner]

Good comments and I can understand folks not voting, but it's just so easy with an absentee ballot. On the surface politics seems like apples and oranges, but on genuine issues that are important to me and my family, there is a difference. At my age, few issues will have much impact on me, but they'll be huge to my grandkids. The wrong guy with a veto pen can really screw them and, at their core, the two parties are different.

In my county, I know from jump street that 2/3rds of the people will vote Republican for one simple reason -- religion. Most of those voters are from the northern end of the county, slightly less affluent working folks and they tend to attend church more. Nothing would please them more than to have *their brand* of religion in every school, on every wall, in every bedroom and in every woman's body. These folks want a theocracy, stacked courts, are told to "vote biblical" and would vote for a reincarnated Hitler if he would end every sentence with "God Bless."

Now, I don't expect miracles and I know that no one politician will ever satisfy everyone. Since money drives the system and the little guy contributes little, we can't expect anything but table scraps -- now. Publicly funded elections would fix that problem.

Why vote? Because there isn't a politician on the planet that doesn't watch the polls and the election returns from all areas. A few percentage points might cause them to think and worry a bit. One semi-decent state republican representative promised to quit after 6 terms (12 years) got complacent and found himself out of a job. My message to politicians is, "you have no mandate, buddy."

Should non-voters complain? It is certainly their right... until that one is taken away too.

[2mega]

It is sad....we have a lot of truly fine people in the Senate and House.

We NEVER hear from them....they are just as saddled as you and I are.

Did you ever wonder why.... out of ALL the members of Congress....only a few are exposed to us by the media and without research, I would say that less than 20 politicians get any kind of exposure to us on the "talking head shows" and the remainder are sufficiently intimidated and put in their place by their leaders.

What kind of "democracy" do we have when any legislative proposals are subjected to The Speaker of the House, and their individual powers determine whether a proposal will even be considered by the full house or not ??

Put a relatively few people in your pocket..and you have control of the government....right ??....RIGHT !!

They will never allow us to have term limits ( the only item Newt Gingrich's 15 point CONTRACT WITH AMERICA - 1996 ? never achieved )

THE ONLY LEGITIMATE AVENUE....SHORT OF REVOLUTION..THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE LEFT IS....VOTE THE MAJOR POLITICIANS OUT (THE GOOD WITH THE BAD)

Someone on the net will keep track of the pols with the most exposure on the T,V, AND VOTE THEM OUT !!!!....Sorry ; ... Lieberman.., Fienstein,.. Shumer..,etc.