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That's your prerogative. You can abstain, vote for the lesser evil, vote for a third party candidate who has zero clue about foreign relations and the military (and cannot possibly win even one state), write in Donald Duck, whatever. You can do anything you want.
But what if the candidate you prefer lost by only one vote?
OTOH, if you cant bring yourself to vote for either one, perhaps you could use your vote toward a third party candidate to advance the cause in that direction for the future.
The point being, whatever happens, if you vote, or not, the outcome is indeed your "fault". The primary difference being that if you don't vote, you really have no moral stand to lodge any complaints in the future.......May as well join the club.
You won't be alone, but doing your duty as a citizen carries no assurance of a happy choice. Ever. Bothwerenominatedfairandsquare by the people each represent.
But now, over half of us is unhappy with who they allowed others to choose for them instead of choosing for themselves.
One was chosen by a big majority of the whopping 9% of the primary voters he represents, and the other was chosen by only a few more points on the other side from the same reluctance to go vote in the primaries. If many more of us had voted in the primaries, the choices could have been much different.
You were a primary voter. Your vote meant a lot of something then, and if enough others feel as you do now, your vote will count for a big something if you change your mind and show up once more to finish the job you started.
No one ever said democracy was easy. Anything that has the power to change history is never easy.
You are fully entitled to your disappointment, but you are no beginner.
I'm sure that once you get over, the sads, you'll gut up and go do your duty, just like I will, when the time comes.
Expressing yourself with a vote, no matter if it is cast for a sure loser, is still better than willingly allowing someone else to have the power that is rightly yours alone.
The only time I ever regretted voting was the only time I did not vote at all. This won't be the first time I may decide to cast my vote for a 3rd party candidate, and I don't expect it will be the last hard decision I'll make in the booth come election day. But I will never allow someone else to take what is mine alone.
Well, at least a vote for a 3rd party has some weight. Its not tossed into the meaningless electoral college vote. Third parties can gain momentum based on their popular vote total alone. If they reach a 5% popular vote, then they become eligible for matching FEC funds in the following election cycle. Those matching funds would be a windfall for any 3rd party, and likely help get them traction and name recognition earlier in the cycle. Even if they never win the election, having a legitimate 3rd voice on the stage for debates and in the conversation as a whole can help to change things.
I am not going to vote - so whatever happens is all your fault.
I voted in our primary, which living in a 90% republican county and a mostly Republican state, means there is one choice, and most of our open seats are now filled.
I mean they voted John RINO McCain in AGAIN for like the 40th time! My vote means absolutely zero.
Which brings us to the presidential debacle. I have so little respect for the office or it's current or future occupant that I refuse to capitalize the word anymore.
WHERE did the real leaders go? What happened to the leadership of yesteryear? I haven't heard an orator since Regan or Kennedy.
Our choice is a virtual criminal professional bureaucrat and liar, or an ignorant rich guy bigot who just wants the title? So rather than voting third party with no chance or for the lesser of two evils, I will abstain.
So unless someone can convince me otherwise - this upcoming disaster us on YOU.
If you - an informed, interested citizen - don't vote then WE (The People) will lose. If informed citizens vote, and out-vote the uninformed loudmouths that are so numerous, then those loudmouths will have it their way. Because they WILL vote.
Consider The Wisdom of The Crowd. It's a real phenomenon:
Quote:
The opening anecdote relates Francis Galton's surprise that the crowd at a county fair accurately guessed the weight of an ox when their individual guesses were averaged (the average was closer to the ox's true butchered weight than the estimates of most crowd members)
In other words, no one individual got the ox's weight right, but the AVERAGE was spot on. I have seen the same phenomenon demonstrated with a jar of jelly beans - no one got it right, but the average of guesses was correct.
So pull up your pants, cinch your belt, hold your breath, get out your ID and go vote.
Location: Sitting on a bar stool. Guinness in hand.
4,428 posts, read 6,515,190 times
Reputation: 1721
I not voting either this time. Neither main canidate is worthy of my vote. And third party canidates have no power base in the house or senate to effect change.
Since I'm A liberal....I'll treat the post election must like I treated 2004's elections result with "Mokusatsu" (treat with silent contempt).
You abdicate your civic duty -- one that millions of people the world over have died to have -- just to you can walk around blaming everyone but yourself for everything?
Politics and governing are messy businesses. Quit whining about how holier-than-thou you are because you're not willing to roll of your sleeves and get your hands dirty.
People who see voting (or not voting) as nothing more than a means to make themselves feel good need to grow up.
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