Voting is a nonissue because the important things have all been decided by the time you get to the polls. Will you vote for "Change We Can Believe In", or "Maverick Reformer With Results"? Either way you're voting for the same thing. Will you vote for "I Will Pull The Troops Out Once The Generals Say It's Appropriate", or will you vote for "I Will Pull The Troops Out Once The Generals Say It's Appropriate, But It Might Be A Long While"?
Will you vote for "Opposed To Gay Marriage", or "Opposed To Gay Marriage"?
Will you vote for "Let's Jack The Public For $850 Billion", or "Let's Jack The Public For $850 Billion"?
Will you vote for "Let's Intimidate Political Speakers" or "Let's Outlaw Political Speech"? (Obama's campaign has not been kind to people speaking ill of him, even resorting to legal threats on multiple occasions; and McCain–Feingold is simply a travesty.)
Will you vote for…?
You get the idea, I hope. The candidates are essentially Coke and Pepsi. Sure, there's a small flavor difference between them, but they're basically the exact same thing: sugary, caffeinated, carbonated cola beverages.
I'm fed up with it. I refuse to cast a vote and thereby explicitly give my assent to the system. I do not assent. I want things to change, I want important things to change, before we all go off the deep end.
The only way to do that is to get people to think about the fact they've been settling for the exact same carbonated cola beverage for the last God knows how long, and persuading them to demand something different. Once the polls change, once people start saying "no, I'm dissatisfied with both parties," then the parties will change to adapt to it.
But once the candidates are on the ballots, then it's too late to do anything. The real elections are the ones that lead up to it. This is why I'm a huge, passionate fan of primary elections; that, more than anything else, is where voters actually have an ability to change political campaigns, especially given how few people participate in primaries. If you can organize just 100 people for your given non–cola candidate in a primary… wow. Magic can happen.
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Will you vote for "Opposed To Gay Marriage", or "Opposed To Gay Marriage"?
Will you vote for "Let's Jack The Public For $850 Billion", or "Let's Jack The Public For $850 Billion"?
Will you vote for "Let's Intimidate Political Speakers" or "Let's Outlaw Political Speech"? (Obama's campaign has not been kind to people speaking ill of him, even resorting to legal threats on multiple occasions; and McCain–Feingold is simply a travesty.)
Will you vote for…?
You get the idea, I hope. The candidates are essentially Coke and Pepsi. Sure, there's a small flavor difference between them, but they're basically the exact same thing: sugary, caffeinated, carbonated cola beverages.
I'm fed up with it. I refuse to cast a vote and thereby explicitly give my assent to the system. I do not assent. I want things to change, I want important things to change, before we all go off the deep end.
The only way to do that is to get people to think about the fact they've been settling for the exact same carbonated cola beverage for the last God knows how long, and persuading them to demand something different. Once the polls change, once people start saying "no, I'm dissatisfied with both parties," then the parties will change to adapt to it.
But once the candidates are on the ballots, then it's too late to do anything. The real elections are the ones that lead up to it. This is why I'm a huge, passionate fan of primary elections; that, more than anything else, is where voters actually have an ability to change political campaigns, especially given how few people participate in primaries. If you can organize just 100 people for your given non–cola candidate in a primary… wow. Magic can happen.