To Vote or Not To Vote ... That Is the Question

[Damaris]

Since this is the political hot box and we've had a few threads about elections, I thought I'd see what everyone's thoughts are on voting. In the U.S., several states have had their primaries, the U.K. elections have come and gone ... so who voted and why? Or why not?

Personally, I didn't vote. In fact, I don't believe I've voted on anything but local appointments (and few of them) since the great Bush-Gore presidential campaign way back in 2000. I am generally disgusted with our political establishment and the corruption that abounds at every level. (I call it an Ivory government: 99.44% pure lies). And if my only choice is the lesser of two evils, I don't see the point. Either way, evil gets in. (And good luck trying to decipher who is "lesser" in most cases.) I'd just rather not vote at all than vote for someone I don't support.

[Bryan James]

If you don't vote, you can't honestly complain.

That's not to say that you can't complain about who you voted for.

If you waive the right to vote you gain the complicity of silence if the shi7 hits the fan.

[Samantha_]

It's part of an argument made about term limits. We have term limits. It's called the right to vote.

[CorbinKale]

I always vote. When faced with a 'lesser of two evils' choice, I will sometimes vote against both.

[Pucker]

If you don't vote, you can't honestly complain.

I don't know that this is necessarily true. Refusal to exercise your franchise is seen by some as an expression of disdain for what has often become a choice between what Matt and Trey so aptly portrayed as a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich. It's true that if you don't vote, you are stuck with what you get, but if you know that what you get is a lot of empty rhetoric (and more than a few outright lies) and you vote for that regardless, then you have signalled your approval of that douche or that turd. Until the two-party system is dismantled in this country -- and who are we kidding? It's a one-party system -- the same special interests are going to run the government no matter how many new slogans you hear.

[GNTLGNT]

There have been too many who have fallen in battle(military, social, political etc.), to help preserve this republic and our right to choose(vote)-that I would do them a great dishonor by not casting a ballot when I have the opportunity...

[Tery]

What Bryan James said. If you don't participate in this Democracy, then you have no right to complain about it.

[Damaris]

Kidcharlemagne said it well. I don't want to have to choose between a turd and a douche. Period. If I willingly vote for a turd, knowing full well he is a turd, I am supporting the abuse of a system that was meant to be one of our greatest freedoms. I cannot believe that our forefathers and the many who died getting us here would feel honored knowing that all their efforts led to a government of douches and turds. I will support my right to vote until the day I die, with violence if necessary ... but I will not waste my ballot on someone who does not deserve it.

[doowopgirl]

If you don't believe in voting, then maybe you should see what it's like to live somewhere you are not allowed to vote. I know the system has a lot of things wrong and is open to corruption, but is WAY better than no choice at all. I live in Ireland where the choices are really awful, and no matter how brazenly corrupt the politicians are, they continue get re elected. I'm not sure how that happens, but it does and I continue to vote, because the other option just scares me more. As an American citizen, I moved to Ireland when I got married, I am registered as an absentee voter and voted in the Presidential election as well. Whatever about the lesser of two evils, it is better to me than the option of no vote.

[Damaris]

If you don't believe in voting, then maybe you should see what it's like to live somewhere you are not allowed to vote. I know the system has a lot of things wrong and is open to corruption, but is WAY better than no choice at all.

I do believe in voting. I thought the mention of defending that right by force if necessary was enough to make that clear, but, if not, let me state for the record that I whole-heartedly believe in voting and support it completely. And I agree that any choice is generally better than no choice at all. I just don't see why all we get to choose between are, as Kidcharlemagne noted, turds and douches. We are capable of so much more.

I live in Ireland where the choices are really awful, and no matter how brazenly corrupt the politicians are, they continue get re elected.

It's the same here, our politicians just try to be less publicly brazen.