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quote=artillery77;42954417]I have often voted for Mickey Mouse, ......
You can't vote for some one who is not on the ballot. No wonder your vote goes File 13! LMAO
It depends. You can write in a name in some states depending on where you live. If there's a possibility that the candidate might be real, the vote counters have to go and ascertain whether or not the individual is qualified to be whatever office it is. Mickey Mouse is a fairly safe invalidator, but I figure there's no reason for me to make some volunteer's life more difficult.
I have never voted & never will unless they get rid of the electoral college votes. It's not fair to the third parties. As I said in another part of the forum " One state can count for 1 vote another might count for 55 votes". It doesn't add up. And voting for one of the two idiot parties isn't doing any good same greedy people all the way across the board. It seems to be that people would rather choose the lesser of two evils then to take a stand.
They are supposed to work for, and serve at the pleasure of, We The People. But they do not.
Do you know for a fact that the votes are all counted honestly? "Those Who Vote Decide Nothing - Those Who Count The Votes Decide Everything" - Joseph Stalin
I can't rep you enough I wish more people understood that.
Absolutely not. Even assuming a perfectly honest and incorruptible vote, think about what you are doing: you are delegating to a proxy the ability to use violence to run other people's lives, or making a rule about what other people can do with their lives which will be enforced with violence. I personally believe that using violence against other people is wrong, whether I do it myself or select someone else to act on my behalf, so I see no reason to feel guilty about abstaining from such a system.
And that's the best case scenario. In reality your vote is meaningless, especially in a presidential election. If the shenanigans of the past few elections and the recent primaries haven't made that crystal clear I don't know what could. Sure, you could write in a "none of the above" vote, but do you really think that would count for anything? Better to do something more productive with your time and treat the bread and circus as the irrelevancy that it is. Only by ignoring the evil people that try to control us and relegating them to insignificance will we ever have a hope of being left to live our lives in peace.
Edited to add:
Quote:
IMO, refusing to take part in a corrupt political system, is a right, a privilege, a duty and a responsibility. Imagine the consternation that would ensue, if they threw an election, and nobody came. Wouds that make a statement, or what?
Nor'Eastah, I can't rep you, but this is it exactly.
Yes. I'm sorry but when I hear people only talk about "liking" or "not liking" certain presidential candidates, it reveals a naivete. By now there is very little similarity between the Republican and Democrat parties (despite the lazy adage that they are ultimately the same). So if a potential voter cannot even decide which of the two parties is better for the country/world, I throw up my hands.
At minimum people should be able to find some issue(s) they care about: pro-pot legalization =vote Dem; pro-life=vote Rep; pro-environment=vote Dem; pro-guns=vote Rep, etal.
I think you've made a very important point here. There was a time that one could claim that the 2 parties were not that far apart. Now they are worlds apart.
There was a period of time, maybe 15 years when I did not vote. I had a reason, but looking back I know in my heart that it wasn't a good reason.
Here's my gripe about people who don't take the time to vote: In the last few elections each time I went to the polls the amount of time taken out of my schedule was at most 15-25 minutes every other year. When I think of the amount of time each of us wastes in our lives, it seems to me that 15-25 minutes every other year is not a lot to give back to our country by voting.
"You" can play a computer game for hours at a time, but every other year you can't go to vote? "You" can hang out at Starbucks and leisurely sip coffee day after day after day, but every other year you can't go to vote? How many minutes did "you" spend watching commercial during the Superbowl...but every other year you can't spend enough time to vote?
And worst of all , "you" can spend hours writing posts on C-D, complaining about politicians, but not spend a few minutes twice a year to vote?
(Keep in mind that the "you" in this post is the generic.
I think you've made a very important point here. There was a time that one could claim that the 2 parties were not that far apart. Now they are worlds apart.
How are they different? Same lies every four years being back by some huge company that's is going to make sure that their bills get passed to make them more money.
After Clinton left office Bush came in & things got worse & then Obama came in & then still continued to get worse. So how different are they again?
A candidate would have an honest win if there was no electoral college and if voters voted for the candidate they felt was best suited to be President. The candidate with the most number of votes should win. Too many people play games assuming if they vote for this person, that person wont get in. Voting should not be a game but that is what it has become. Strategic voting is the problem with America and if that is your uneducated plan to eliminate someone then you should not vote. I still say there should be no parties, only individuals running to make a better America.
"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." Joseph Stalin.
I rarely vote in a presidential election because there is never anyone that I like running. Take the last election: You can't blame me for not voting if I don't like either candidate. What was the choice--a war monger or Obama.
You thought Romney was a war monger?
Back to the OP question. No you should not feel guilty but neither should you complain (I don't know if you do) too much about the state of affairs.
Ignore those who say you have a duty to vote. You have no such duty.
If you are interested and have an opinion, then you should go vote. If you have not followed current events and issues and generally have no interest in such things, then you should stay home.
Political parties go to great lengths to "get out the vote" because they know that the people most difficult to drag to the polls are also the most easily manipulated.
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