oldslabsides wrote:
And then what happens?

Not criticizing your decision this round, but what are you prepared to do about it? The OK ballot access laws are keeping you from voting your conscience. That problem needs fixin'. Don't take this sitting down, get busy setting it right. Agitate to change the laws.

Don't let them shut you up.;

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
I don't trust despair and cynicism. I think they're easy outs. I think the author of that piece is intellectually lazy and not a particularly deep thinker. I could go on, but we've all heard my rants before.

I don't see the point in sitting out. Granted that if you really can't add a write-in or vote for a third party your options kind of suck. But at no point is it likely that the entrenched powers will say, "Hmm, not enough participation in our sham elections. Better straighten up and fly right." It's not about blanket moral approval of a candidate and all she stands for. It's about expressing a preference, and participating in an attempt to make things better.

 hippiechick wrote: 
You often despair at how so many people can vote for Republicans, statements like that are a big part of your answer.
Edit; Both you and I make lousy Buddhists. Difference is, I don't profess to be one.

 winter wrote: 
This made me grimace a little too. Schlabby's said he intends to vote this round, but he's sat out previously on very well-considered grounds. I still think it's the wrong choice but it's only as wrong as a wrong vote, when it's an informed choice. If that makes any sense.

I am more pragmatic. I realize that my ideas are more evolved than most of the people in the US, and to expect that we could elect a person who would put into effect all of what I believe in would be most unrealistic.

So I go with the candidate who stands mostly for what I believe in. I think that Obama has accomplished so much in his four years to move our country forward that he deserves to get another four years. And besides, the candidate running against him is a lying liar who will say anything to get elected that he does not deserve to have any chance to be our president. 

 samiyam wrote: 
Actually, Cincinnati

 winter wrote: 
Yeah, that's me, B. I go through life without ever engaging my brain. Thanks so much for not even considering for the briefest of instants a perspective other than your own. I should try to remember that you're always there, lurking, waiting for me to post something you can pontificate your vastly superior intellect upon. I'll go back to keeping my obviously ridiculous positions to myself. Oh - and not thinking.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

agreed.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
You know, in your state with no (?) 3rd party candidates and no write-ins, the "staying-home protest vote" is perfectly valid. 
 
I used to think WTF when people would write in Mickey Mouse or None of the above on their presidential ballot, but that, at least, makes a point and separates that voter from the hordes who stay home because they're lazy and ignorant. A few years ago I had a coworker complain about all the Obama/McCain posts on FB (or was it MySpace she was on back then?)... and everyone in the office was talking about voting etc because IT WAS ELECTION DAY and she had no idea. Not "no idea that it was today," but no idea that there was an election at all, or that she was eligible to vote for the first time in her life... 
 
But as an activist nonvote, not choosing from among the 2 viable choices is still a big deal. You're saying the good things one guy will do vs the bad things the other guy will do aren't as important as saying "I don't want that on my head" ...which is valid, but it's a big statement. It's saying "I'm so upset with this (laundry list, granted) that I will not vote to help myself or others in this (much smaller list) area."

 oldslabsides wrote: 
I could go on and on, but the bottom line of this piece is: if you already despair of ever influencing anything because you think in black-and-white terms, care about a very narrow range of issues, believe that the system is already too corrupt to even use for your own advantage, and are generally too cynical to be bothered with breathing (much less thinking), you should stick with that.

 

 oldslabsides wrote: 
from the article...

U.S. Elections and Learned Helplessness

“If the Bush administration didn’t like somebody, they’d kidnap them and send them to torture chambers. If the Obama administration decides they don’t like somebody, they murder them.”

— Noam Chomsky

When the Republicans win, Americans get senseless wars and corporate control. When the Democrats win, Americans get senseless wars and corporate control.

to vote or not to vote