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It would be a beautiful thing to see the government scrambling to try to justify to the world community why its people are so disenfranchised that only a small fraction even bother to vote.
It is the only thing I believe that might institute some meaningful change.
They say Presidents are "selected", not "elected".
I vote third party in national elections. Still hoping to get to that 5% that will enable them to get some real campaign money. I wish though that people would vote third party rather than sit home and not vote at all since they think there are only 2 parties..Dem vs Repub.
Parties have changed over the course of US History. I don't know why so many think that we can't do it again.
To participate in the democratic form, especially the socialist democratic form, while harboring such goals as smaller government, lower taxes, and more liberty is a total waste. You cannot reform the system in that fashion. It’s like sending a missionary to a pirate ship to get it to change its evil ways. At best, the pleas will fall on deaf ears. At worst, the missionary will walk the plank.
There IS a remedy, but you may not realize it. It goes back to 1776 and the Declaration of Independence. Remember, job #1 is secure rights and job #2 is to govern those who consent. And securing rights simply meant prosecution of deliberate injuries and adjudication of accidental injuries (after the fact). As to being “governed,” those who did not or could not consent, were never subject to the terms of the compacts. But those who did consent, surrendered or waived rights, and could be compelled to perform mandatory civic duties in exchange for the exercise of privileges such as civil and political liberty.
To make a long story short, in America’s case, the people are sovereigns, served - not ruled- by government unless they consent otherwise. If they consent to be subject citizens, they descend in status to servants of the servant government, and become persons liable. This can be readily seen in the USCON, where “people” have rights and powers, while “citizens” have privileges and immunities.
In the 1820s, the people were lured into “joining up” with the democratic form of government and shifted the balance of power, so that the partisan political parties could rise to dominance, power and wealth. Prior to that decade, the only people who could vote and hold office had to own property and have paid taxes - a small subset of the nation. And coincidentally, the only people compelled to perform mandatory civic duties like jury duty and militia duty (the obligation to train, fight, and die, on command) were those same Americans. Everyone else was not so liable nor obligated.
A restoration of the original republican form of government cannot be achieved by the ballot. Waiving rights to participate in the democratic form cannot restore rights. The only remedy is to withdraw consent from the system : from FICA (socialism) and from submission to the democratic form. Examine your local state laws and constitution for proof that American nationals / inhabitants with domiciles who absolutely own private property retain their natural and personal liberty. Verify that private property is not subject to ad valorem taxes as is qualified ownership of estate (real and personal property). Verify that non-residents (inhabitants) are not obligated to register themselves, their property nor get permissions (licenses) before they can exercise their rights and liberties.
Do not be daunted by a lack of explicit mention of those who are not subject to the government. “They” have been carefully running a scam for many many generations. Just tally up the differences between the inhabitants and residents, domiciles and residences, the nationals and the citizens, the sovereigns and the subjects. Once you accumulate enough facts and data, you will be convinced.
I believe most claims that voting is a waste of time are birthed from the misapprehension that one's own personal vote should result in things changing to conform to that one specific vote. It relies on the baseless assumption that other voters either agree with the curmudgeon's logic or are flawed, corrupted, or in some other way not honorably supportive of the perspectives that prevail and have sway.
I haven't voted since 1996 and am better for it. I have worked several elections after 1996 as a pole-worker (and yes I felt a bit the stripper's woe) and can sadly announce that it only proved to me why I stopped supporting the corporate drama of elections held to give its convenient shadow oligarchy democracy any sort of justifiable pretense.
It's a sham. That's why people are ignoring it because they know how the American political system truly works. Elections are nothing more than a pretext to sate the silliness of self-esteem, another illusionist trick in the fake democracy handbook...
If all the people who felt this way, who were aware of the corruption in the government, actually voted, then the votes would count. The problem is that most of the people voting are the ones who have already bought into the system and have been fooled by propaganda.
I agree with Happy Texan (for once!). You should vote for third party. If a third party gets just 5% of the popular vote, they get a ****-ton of campaign money. Will that help them win the next election? Probably not. But they will have more funds to get their message out. And if they do that long enough, more people will wake up a bit more.
People should really check out the Green Party. They stand for so many things that most people probably already believe. They refuse to take contirubtions for PACs and corporations. They have a much smaller chance of corruption than the two parties in power.
Another thing: votes obviously mattered in Florida in 2000. I realize that the Democrats and Republicans are virtually the same thing, but I have a hard time believing that Al Gore would have invaded Iraq, which cost us trillions plus nearly 5,000 soldiers. That's a big deal.
Another thing: ballot initiatives. Medical marijuana lost in my state in 2012 by 4%. Imagine how easily that could have changed if all the pro-marijuana people who feel dis-empowered had actually registered to vote and had actually showed up at the polls in November. There were citizens busting their butts all year to get that on the ballot, and then there are people who don't even want to do register to vote and show up just one day every few years.
So many of the things we take for granted now came about by voters voting. Anything worthwhile doesn't happen overnight. It is a long battle. Don't fool yourself into thinking you are doing something worthwhile by not voting. If you don't want to vote, fine. But then you need to be doing something else: canvassing for a cause, protesting, direct action. Doing nothing is just that: doing nothing. And that will achieve nothing. Did the hippies who dropped out and moved to communes enact change? Not really. I mean, now I know where to buy eco-friendly hemp hammocks. That's about it.
Last edited by soanchorless; 06-29-2013 at 04:36 PM..
Local votes are different from state-wide or national ones, yes. We recently had a city-wide vote, in my city, for a tax increase. If it had not passed (it did pass, and I voted for it), my friend, who is a middle-school music teacher, would have lost her job, and there would have been no instrumental music in that school anymore. Not to mention no buses to the high school, and other cuts to "non-essential" services.
Do I regret my vote? Not at all. I do worry about some of the folks in town who will have trouble absorbing a tax increase (maybe including me!), but the vote supported things that I believe in (arts, music, phys ed in the schools, etc.).
Obviously, this example shows the direct result of a local vote. But could larger (state-wide, national) votes have parallel effects?
There's no need for the electoral college anymore. That system needs to be abolished as well. Everyone has access to media and can gain knowledge about candidates.
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